Local Hiring Legislation Introduced in Baltimore City

This November, Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young introduced legislation that would require all employers with city contracts and all developers receiving special tax breaks from the city to hire city residents. The bill would also require jobs be posted through the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED). The bill includes criminal sanctions if the employers don’t draw at least 51 percent of their new hires from the city for projects with city contracts worth more than $300,000. The bill is reportedly modeled after a Boston ordinance dating back some 30 years ago, and there are some exemptions included in the bill. Applying the ordinance to some federal funding streams, such as those from the U.S. Department of Transportation may be challenging. Local hiring policies are practical strategies that connect residents -- in particular low-income people, women, and people of color -- to quality infrastructure and construction jobs that are being undertaken in the communities in which they live. Over half of African American males between the ages 20 to 24 who are living in Baltimore City are either unemployed or not in the labor force. Instituting local hire provisions can be a particularly effective tool in creating access to employment in the black community. However, the implementation and enforcement of such an ordinance must be monitored to ensure the neediest residents actually benefit from it. Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction.