Labor Laws in Maryland

August 24th, 2006 Posted by Marilyn

Maryland is an employment at will state which means that the employer may fire an employee at any time for any reason other than discrimination. There are several reasons why an employer could not fire an employee; some include race, sex, religion, military leave and jury duty.

The minimum wage for employees in Maryland is $6.15 per hour. Tipped employees must be paid at least $3.08 per hour along with their tips earned. In the event that the tips earned do not equal the minimum wage, the employer is responsible for making up the difference to the employee.

Holiday pay is not a requirement for any employer in Maryland unless there is a prior agreement. Severance pay is also not a requirement according to labor laws in Maryland. No other benefits such as health and life insurance, sick leave, or vacation time, are legally required by the labor laws in Maryland either. Some employers will provide these things to benefit their employees.

Overtime must be paid to employees who work more than 40 hours in a seven day period. There are some exceptions however. Some jobs such as farm workers do have different standards. Overtime is equal to 1.5 times the actual hourly rate usually paid to the employee. These overtime hours are based on hours actually worked and things like vacation or sick leave do not count towards overtime.

There are no labor laws in Maryland that state that an employer must provide a break for workers who are not minors. This includes lunch breaks as well as rest periods. However, if an employer does provide a break they are not required to pay for the break time unless the employee is not allowed to leave the work area. If the employee must be “on-hand” to work, then the break time must be paid.

Work permits are a requirement for all employees under the age of 18 years old according to the labor laws in Maryland. There are very strict laws concerning the employment of minors and it is up to the employers to be sure that these laws are being enforced.

Last 10 posts by Marilyn

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Posted in Compliance Issues, Department of Labor, Maryland

  1. Posted by: Linda Thomas

    Last year my husband and his employer agreed on a new wage plan that included the employer paying for my health insurance. On 11/4 the employer went to my husband and informed him that he was going back to the old wage plan and will not be paying my health insurance. Later we found out that the employer paid the insurance for the month of November and is now demanding that we repay the amount of the health insurance. We were never given the option of paying for this month or not. My question is are we required to repay the money for the insurance since we did not know that the employer was going to change the way the wages were to be paid?

  2. Posted by: Amelia

    Hi Linda! This is a thorny issue. First of all, unfortunately, this is not a matter of wages — it is a matter of benefits. Legally, that makes a difference. You also say that your husband and his employer “agreed” but that is not how employment works. The employer determines the level of wages and benefits, and your husband makes a decision to accept the job or not.
    Many employers are reducing salaries, benefits or both in this economy, so we do not see any problem with that. The employer decided to no longer cover the cost of health insurance for you. (We will note that this is very common. Less than 15% of employers cover the entire cost of healthcare premiums for both employee and dependants.) However, the employer neglected to inform your husband in advance, and paid the November premium.
    The employer cannot “force” your husband to repay the premium by holding a gun to your husband’s head until he writes the check. However, the Maryland Labor Commissioner does permit the employer to make a deduction from the employee’s wages when the employee has received “something of value” such as making a long distance phone call from the work phone. In this case, your husband received “something of value” in terms of health insurance coverage for you. (Other states would not permit such a deduction unless the employee had given his or her written permission in adavance.) So the employer cannot “make” your husband write them a check, but they can deduct this premium from his next paycheck to recoup the cost. Our suggestion is, to keep the peace with the employer, that your husband repay the amount now, if he is able to. HTH, and thanks for reading the blogs!~ Amelia

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