Thousands of contract workers at BWI Marshall Airport and Baltimore Penn Station will get a boost in pay over the next five years under a new law that will take effect later this year, the Secure Maryland Wage Act.
Contract workers, which includes wheelchair attendants, baggage handlers, janitors, and food workers, will see their wage increase to $17 an hour by 2026. Workers will start earning $13.50 per hour on January 1, 2022, with yearly increases.
At present, these workers can earn as little as $8.50 per hour, plus tips.
The new bill, which was approved by the General Assembly with an effective date of Oct. 1, will also eliminate tipped wages for wheelchair agents, who report that they rarely receive tips.
The Secure Maryland Wage Act, sponsored by state Sen. Antonio Hayes, a Baltimore Democrat, and Del. Kriselda Valderrama, a Prince George’s County Democrat, was passed to increase pay for employees at a “heightened security interest location” in an effort to attract and retain experienced workers.
Lifting wages has been shown to reduce turnover rates at airports. A study conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that an increase in pay improved worker performance and decreased the turnover rate by an average of 34 percent.
“This law is a blessing to me and my family,” said Doran Brown, a wheelchair agent at BWI, in a news release.
“I will finally get the raise I need and deserve to support myself and my ailing mother who depends on me,” he said, “I thank the leaders who stood with us and congratulate all of my coworkers who now are on a path to a living wage.”
Airport workers around the country have been calling for higher pay for years, holding strikes and protests to increase the minimum wage.
In 2016, contract workers at Reagan National Airport rallied to demand a $15 minimum wage.
Workers at Dulles International and Reagan National airports won their years-long battle for higher wages in 2019. The authority that runs the airports, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, agreed to raise wages for contract workers to $15 an hour starting in 2023.
Similar wage policies have been applied at airports around the country, including LAX and Oakland Airport in California and JFK and LGA in New York.
