Maryland Labor Laws

In the US, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) manages the time spent by employees in the workplace and safeguards their rights to guarantee fair pay for their efforts. These laws act as directives for employers, keep them in check, and minimize any forms of abuse or exploitation.

Generally, time management laws in Maryland are governed by the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law. Federal, state, and local governments are not covered by the policies of Maryland Wage and Hour Law; these establishments are required to follow federal law. 

Employers who contravene state time management laws can face severe legal ramifications, including fines, back pay, and damages. If workers feel their employer has violated state time management laws, they can file a claim with the Maryland Department of Labor for investigation and legal action. 

Maryland anti-discrimination employment law prohibits employers with 15 or more workers from discriminating or retaliating against job applicants and employees due to protected characteristics, which include:

Maryland employment law includes an additional policy known as the Job Applicant Fairness Act. This act specifically prohibits employers from requesting a job applicant’s credit report to determine their eligibility for employment, discharge, or changes in pay rate.

Employment relationships in Maryland operate under the at-will principle. This means that an employer or employee can choose to end an employment contract at any time and for any reason, with or without prior notice. Note that the at-will doctrine does not allow wrongful termination due to discrimination of protected traits or retaliation for filing worker’s compensation. Additionally, termination in violation of public policy is prohibited.

After termination of employment in Maryland, an employee must receive their final wages before or on their next regularly scheduled payday.  

Some key employment laws in Maryland include:

• Workplace Safety Laws: Maryland adheres to a state subsidiary called the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH). MOSH customizes several workplace health and safety services for businesses in Maryland. This includes on-site inspections and consultations, educational outreach, setting and enforcing standards, and working with businesses to continuously improve workplace safety and health.
• Background Check Laws: Maryland’s Ban the Box law prohibits employers from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal record until after they have completed their first in-person interview. The law applies only to full-time workers, and any business with 15 or more full-time employees in Maryland must comply. However, employers can check an employee’s criminal record if it is closely related to their job duties, such as occupations in schools, security, and financial or insurance institutions.
• Employer Use of Social Media Laws: In Maryland, employers are not allowed to request their employees to provide their usernames and passwords for personal social media accounts for any reason. However, they are permitted to request login credentials for any work-related, non-personal accounts that can access the company’s internal computer. Furthermore, employers are allowed to investigate work-related computers if there is any evidence of unauthorized downloads, financial data, or other types of misconduct that could jeopardize business operations. They can also investigate such computers to ensure compliance with financial and security laws.
• Drug and Alcohol Testing Laws: In Maryland, an employer may reprimand an employee who is a medical marijuana patient if they test positive for the drug while at work. Bodily samples, such as blood, urine, hair, and saliva, are acceptable for drug testing, but breath samples are not recommended for alcohol testing. Employers can test for any controlled substance, but only if they are using a licensed laboratory to collect and process the samples. 
• Sexual Harassment Training Laws: Maryland’s laws on anti-harassment training mandate that all public employees undergo a 2-hour sexual harassment prevention training within 6 months of starting their job. Following the initial session, a 2-hour training should be taken every two years.
• Health Insurance Continuation Laws: In Maryland, eligible employees can continue their group health insurance after loss of employment under the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) or Maryland’s Mini-COBRA. COBRA only applies to companies with more than 20 employees, whereas the Mini-COBRA applies to business owners who have 19 employees or fewer. Coverage can last for 18 to 36 months after termination. Note that employees can be required to pay up to 102% of the premium cost for COBRA coverage.
• Recordkeeping Laws: The Maryland Department of Labor requires employers to maintain employee records for 3 years after employment termination. Each record should contain the employee’s name, address, race, gender, occupation, rate of pay, amount earned each pay period, daily work hours, and weekly work hours.

Maryland’s minimum wage stands at $15.00 for all employees. However, Maryland has two counties with varying minimum wages based on the size of a business. 

In Montogomery County, businesses with ten or fewer employees must pay the state minimum wage—$15.00 per hour—to all employees. Similarly, businesses in Howard County with less than 15 workers are required to pay the same minimum wage. 

For larger establishments in these counties, minimum wage rates are as follows:

Additionally, Maryland law entitles workers under the age of 18 to earn 85% of the state minimum wage, which is $12.75 per hour. This rate can vary based on the location and size of the minor’s employer.

Maryland employment law defines a tipped employee as a worker who regularly receives more than $30 in tips per month. Employers in Maryland can take tip credit and pay tipped workers a reduced cash wage. 

Tipped employees in Maryland must be paid at least $3.63 per hour, provided that their cash wage and tips combine to equal the state minimum wage. If not, the employer must make up the difference.

Note that tipped workers in restaurants must be given a wage statement that includes their hourly pay rate, including cash wages and tip credit, for each week in a pay period. 

Maryland wage laws exclude several professions from minimum wage entitlement, including:

• An employer’s immediate family member
• Executives, administrative, and professional employees
• Outside salespersons
• Commissioned employees
• Workers involved in canning, packing, or freezing of fruits, vegetables, poultry, or seafood
• Employees in drive-in theatres
• Trainees in public school special education programs
• Minors under 16 who work less than 20 hours per week
• Volunteers for educational, charitable, religious, and non-profit organizations
• Non-administrative employees of organized camps
• Employees of food and beverage businesses with gross earnings of less than $400,000 annually
• Certain agricultural workers

Employers in Maryland must pay their workers either bi-weekly or twice per month. However, employees in executive, professional, or administrative roles are exempt from this rule and may receive their compensation less frequently.  

Maryland’s overtime laws adhere closely to the FLSA, which states that employees who work over 40 hours per week can earn additional wages. These additional wages are calculated at 1.5 times the employee’s regular wage for all hours worked beyond 40. 

For minimum wage workers, this rate stands at $22.50 per hour.  

However, employees working in bowling establishments, or as caretakers for the elderly, sick, and disabled are eligible for overtime pay once they work more than 48 hours in a week. Similarly, agricultural workers can only earn overtime for hours worked beyond 60 in a week.

Certain employees in Maryland are not eligible to earn overtime pay, even if they work more than 40 hours a week. This typically includes white-collar employees employed in administrative, executive, and professional roles who earn at least $684 weekly (or $35,568 annually). 

Furthermore, the following employees are also exempt from overtime pay:

• Employees in certain seasonal amusement and recreational establishments
• Employees covered by certain railroad requirements of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Act
• Employees in non-profit concerts, theater, music festival, music pavilion, or theatrical show
• Automobile, farm equipment, trailers, or trucks salespersons and servicemen
• Taxicab drivers
• Additionally, all employees exempt from minimum wage in Maryland are also exempt from overtime pay. 

Maryland employment law does not require employers to provide workers with any rest or lunch breaks. Only minors—workers aged under 18— are entitled to a 30-minute break for every five hours of consecutive work. 

If an employer in Maryland offers breaks at their discretion, they must adhere to the general guidelines of the FLSA. Breaks lasting 20 minutes or less are generally considered rest breaks and must be paid.

On the other hand, a break that lasts 30 minutes or more can be provided for employees to take meals. This break is unpaid, provided that the employee is completely relieved of all job duties for the duration of the break.

Shift Break Law in Maryland

Certain employees working in retail establishments are entitled to a shift break lasting 30 minutes for more than six hours of consecutive work as per Maryland labor law.  If a shift lasts eight or more consecutive hours, employees can take a 30-minute break, with an additional 15-minute break for every four additional hours worked. 

Employees who work more than four but less than six hours can take a 15-minute break, which can be waived by mutual written agreement between an employer and employee. 

To be eligible for shift breaks in Maryland, an employee must work in a retail establishment with at least 50 or more employees working daily for a period of 20 or more weeks.

In Maryland, the FLSA mandates employers to provide nursing employees reasonably timed breaks to express milk or breastfeed as per the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act). The PUMP Act requires employers to arrange a private, shielded nursing room —that is not a bathroom. This room must be free from intrusion from coworkers and the public.

These breaks must be provided up to one year after the birth of a child. Additionally, nursing employees must be allowed to bring their own cooler or personal container to store breast milk. 

Employers with less than 50 employees are exempt from providing breastfeeding breaks if the arrangement of proper accommodations poses significant difficulties to the business.

Leave laws in Maryland require employers to provide the following benefits to their workers:

• Parental Leave: Employees in Maryland are entitled to six weeks of unpaid parental leave in a 12-month period after the birth, adoption, or foster care of a child. If an employer chooses to provide paid parental leave for the birth of a child, they must provide the same benefit to adoptive parents. 
• Military Leave: Maryland leave laws allow employees to take a one-day leave for the deployment or return of an immediate family member serving in the military. To be eligible, an employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months.
• Paid Leave: Maryland’s Flexible Leave Act requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide paid leave to employees who need to care for the illness or grieve the death of an immediate family member. Leave provided under this act does not affect time off provided by the FMLA. 
• Sick and Family Leave: For every 30 hours worked, non-exempt employees in Maryland can earn one hour of sick or family leave, and up to 40 hours per year can be accrued. Sick leave can be taken for a variety of reasons, including injury or illness of oneself or a family member, preventative medical care, and parental leave. Employers with 15 or more employees are required to provide paid sick leave, but those with 14 or fewer employees can provide unpaid sick leave.

The following public holidays will be observed in Maryland in 2025: 

Maryland law defines a minor as an individual under the age of 18 who is not married. The minimum age of employment in Maryland is 14.

Work Permits for Minors in Maryland

In Maryland, all minors under the age of 18 are required to obtain a work permit once they have secured a job offer. Work permits are issued by the  Division of Labor and Indusry. 

Employers must retain a minor’s work permit for at least three years. Minors are required to obtain a new work permit for a new job.

Working hours for minors in Maryland vary based on their age as well as school attendance requirements. Generally, all minors must receive a 30-minute break after 5 consecutive hours of work. 

When school is in session, minors aged 14 and 15 can only work up to three hours daily with a weekly maximum of 18 hours. When school is not in session, they can work up to eight hours daily, with a weekly maximum of 40 hours. Work hours for minors in this age group can only be scheduled between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. However, between June 1 and Labor Day, they can be scheduled to work until 9 p.m. 

On the other hand, minors aged 16 and 17 can work a total of 12 hours daily. These hours are a combination of school and work hours. State law does not dictate a specific time for the scheduling of their work hours. It only requires employers to provide eight hours of rest in a 24-hour period. 

In Maryland, any occupation considered dangerous by the U.S. Secretary of Labor is banned for minors. The following occupations are strictly prohibited for all minors in the state, except those involved in Youth Employment programs:

Additionally, state law bans employment for minors in: