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The Maryland state committee of House Economic Matters held a five-hour session on Tuesday to discuss raising the state?s minimum wage. The main proposition would raise the minimum wage from the federal floor, $7.25 per hour, to the figure Obama suggested the minimum wage should be in this year?s state of the union, $10.10 per hour. This increase would take place in increments spread between July 2014 and July 2016, but then tied to inflation. The state governor, Martin O?Malley, has shown great support for raising the minimum wage in his speaking engagements. Opponents of the proposed minimum wage bill say that Maryland may lose its competitiveness because so many of its communities are in close competition with other states, rather than each other. Some opponents are proposing changes to the bill, others are calling for it to be scrapped altogether, but most experts believe that some form of the bill will eventually pass.