Maryland Small Business Pay, Jobs and Filing Facts 2026

Maryland runs on high-paid knowledge work, and most of the firms doing it are small: 696,710 small businesses, 99.6% of every company in the state, employing 1.2 million people. Their 47.9% share of state employment beat the national small business share in 2022, the SBA notes, down from 48.6% a year earlier.

The private-sector average runs $75,855 a year, lifted by the state’s science and technology base. Private employment grew 2.1% in 2024, and new business applications, off their 2021 peak of 115,156, came back to about 101,253 in 2025, about 34% above 2019.

Federal data and Maryland’s own statutes and agencies supply the figures below, each linked in the closing list.

The Maryland Economy, Almost All Small Firms

The SBA’s 2025 Maryland profile counts 696,710 small businesses, 99.6% of roughly 699,500 companies statewide and about 28,300 more than the 2024 edition recorded.

• 110,383 small employer firms make up 97.3% of Maryland employers and accounted for $69.8 billion in payroll, 43.8% of the state total (2022).
• 586,327 nonemployer businesses reported $29.68 billion in 2022 receipts; 89.6% of them are sole proprietorships.
• The BLS counts 192,176 private establishments for 2024, 196,050 with government offices added.
• By firm count including solo ventures, professional and technical services leads at 106,969, an unusual first for any state, with transportation and warehousing close behind at 91,436, most of them independent operators.

Maryland’s Biggest Employers and Their Wage Gaps

Two sectors tower over Maryland’s private payroll. Health care and social assistance is the largest, 401,057 jobs and about 17.9% of the total, and it added 22,336 in 2024, the biggest gain anywhere. Right behind it, unusually for any state, sits professional, scientific and technical services at 283,075 jobs, spread across more establishments than any other sector. Retail (269,510) and accommodation and food (226,764, the lowest-paid) round out the top four, and manufacturing, though just 5.0% of private jobs, pays $99,719, about a third above the state average. The state’s marquee employers never show up here by name; they live inside these industry cells.

• Utilities pays the highest average, $151,121, ahead of finance and insurance ($141,289) and information ($140,757).
• Management of companies averages $137,047 and professional services $123,644.
• At the bottom sit accommodation and food at $30,619, arts and recreation at $41,668 and retail at $42,891; the statewide private average is $75,855.

The knowledge economy leans small too: 97.5% of professional-services employers are small firms, and they carry 55.3% of the sector’s jobs (2022 data).

Inside Maryland’s Knowledge Economy

The science-and-technology sector pays $123,644 on average, 63% above the state’s private norm, and its $35.0 billion in wages comes to about 20.6% of all private pay in Maryland. The detail underneath explains the state’s reputation, and each number here is a payroll cell rather than a company.

Computer systems design is the largest piece, 84,432 jobs at $143,651, nearly a third of the sector and the cyber and IT base. Scientific research and development services adds 40,822 jobs at $144,145, and inside that, research and development in biotechnology runs 12,697 jobs at $151,318, though it slipped 3.0% in 2024.

Manufacturing is small in Maryland but sits at the top of the pay scale for the same reasons. Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing averages $200,998, the highest of any sizable cell in the state, even as it shed 14.4% of its jobs in a year; navigational and control instrument manufacturing, the defense-electronics cell, holds 17,536 jobs at $143,320 and grew 3.6%.

Maryland’s Jobs Cluster in Two Metro Belts

The map underneath is private-sector, and where government looms large in a jurisdiction its weight is noted on its own. Montgomery County, the most populous and the state’s research corridor, holds 367,114 private jobs, about 16.4% of the total, at the highest private pay of the five areas profiled here, $89,643. Its own science-and-technology cell, 66,506 jobs, contracted 3.3% in 2024, and about a fifth of the county’s employment is government work.

• Prince George’s County carries 231,626 private jobs, up 3.6%, with the deepest government share of the five at 29.7%.
• Baltimore County holds 318,547 private jobs, up 1.6%, and is a separate jurisdiction from Baltimore City.
• Baltimore City, an independent city rather than part of the county, runs 270,536 private jobs on an eds-and-meds-and-port profile: health care alone is 27.7% of its private employment and educational services 10.6%, both far above the statewide shares.
• Anne Arundel County, home to the state capital and a cyber-and-defense corridor, grew fastest of the five at 4.2%, its science-and-technology cell up 8.9%.

The High-Income Edge in Howard County

Howard County, the state’s highest-income jurisdiction, shows the heaviest knowledge-economy tilt of the areas pulled: professional and technical services fill 21.5% of its private employment at $141,132, and county private pay of $87,278 trails only Montgomery’s.

Put together, the five profiled areas hold 63.7% of Maryland’s private jobs, and government accounts for 19.2% of all state employment: the Washington-and-Baltimore corridor and the federal payroll are most of the Maryland economy in two numbers.

Maryland’s Hiring and Shedding in 2024

Maryland’s private sector added 46,886 jobs in 2024, a 2.1% gain and a solid year. The record below is a tally, not advice: the sectors that grew, then the ones that gave ground.

• Arts and recreation grew fastest in percentage terms among sizeable sectors, up 7.2% (3,058 jobs).
• Health care added the most outright, 22,336 jobs, a 5.9% climb, and management of companies rose 5.1%.
• Other services gained 4.3%, educational services 3.8%, and accommodation and food 2.4% (5,351 jobs).

The losing side was led, in job terms, by finance and insurance, down 1,112 positions (1.3%), with manufacturing shedding 905 (0.8%), utilities off 3.5% and information 2.2%; retail and transportation finished flat.

Maryland Filings After the 2021 Surge

Maryland’s new-business applications, tallied from monthly Census data into calendar-year sums, are close estimates rather than official counts. The state logged roughly 75,100 in 2018 and 75,500 in 2019, jumped 29% in 2020, and peaked at 115,156 in 2021. The four years since have zig-zagged: 99,261, then 101,827, then 95,446, then a 6.1% rebound to about 101,253 in 2025, still roughly 34% above the 2019 mark.

Underneath the applications, the establishment count slowed. Between March 2022 and March 2023, openings ran 4,023 ahead of closures; a year later the gap was 2,281, and the net job gain from that turnover dropped from 44,367 to 14,633 across firms of every size, temporary closures counted in. In the later window small businesses booked 16,613 net new jobs, more than the whole economy managed, which the profile’s accounting permits when large firms are shedding staff.

A Strong SBA Year and a Bigger Export Total

Maryland’s guaranteed-loan programs had a strong fiscal 2024; its small microloan channel did not, and the export total kept climbing.

Two Loan Programs Up, One Down

SBA lenders backed 1,233 7(a) loans worth $433.6 million in Maryland in fiscal 2024; with the 504 program added, the two together come to about 1,271 loans and $492.7 million.

• The 7(a) count rose 32.0% and its dollars 19.3% over fiscal 2023, measured on the 7(a) program alone.
• The 504 program grew even faster on its own trend, up 35.7% in loans and 40.0% in dollars, to 38 loans and $59.0 million.
• Microloans went the other way, down 44.8% to 246 loans; Maryland’s microloan volume runs high for its size, reflecting a large in-state microlender, none named here.
• District MD-03 led the 7(a) table on both counts, 197 loans and $80.9 million; the Baltimore City district, MD-07, was the smallest at 110 loans.
• Community Reinvestment Act data adds $1.4 billion in new bank loans to firms under $1 million in revenue in 2023, down from $1.6 billion in 2022.

The Export Base and Its Small-Firm Slice

Maryland’s identified exporters shipped $16.1 billion in goods in 2023, up from $14.5 billion the year before, across 6,046 firms. Small firms are 5,288 of them, 87.5%, but their $4.8 billion held flat while the total rose, so the small-firm share of the value slipped from 33.4% to 30.0%.

A Mostly Urban Ownership Map in Maryland

Maryland’s ownership base is unusually urban: just 13.8% of its classifiable businesses are rural, 91,379 against 568,990 urban, in the 2022 Census surveys. It is also a state of deep Black business ownership, 212,680 firms in all, one of the strongest such lines among the states, though 95.4% run without employees.

• Women-owned firms are 46.1% of the state’s businesses, 24,360 of them with employees and another 9,528 owned equally by women and men.
• Veteran ownership, at 5.8% of businesses, slightly outruns the 5.4% veteran share of workers; 35,747 firms in all, 5,747 with staff.
• Owners of Hispanic origin hold 11.0% of businesses (72,428, of which 5,428 employ staff), and Asian owners 75,431 (14,931 employer firms).

Maryland’s Output and Its Record Travel Year

Maryland produced $568.1 billion in goods and services in 2025 at current prices, up from $546.0 billion in 2024. In inflation-adjusted terms the economy grew about 0.7% in 2025, after a stronger 3.0% in 2024, per federal accounts.

Tourism’s 2023 Record

The Maryland Office of Tourism’s 2023 impact study, prepared by Tourism Economics, reports a record year for visitor spending.

• Visitors spent $20.5 billion in 2023, up 5.7% and a record by the study’s measure.
• Counting indirect and induced effects, the report puts total business sales at $31.4 billion.
• Tourism supported 190,660 jobs and $2.4 billion in state and local tax revenue; 45 million visitors came, up 3.6%.

The $100 Filing and the $300 That Follows Every Year

An LLC costs $100 to form in Maryland, and that is the cheap part; every year after, the state expects $300 more.

Forming an LLC With SDAT

A domestic LLC files its Articles of Organization with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation for $100, a fee set in the Corporations and Associations code. Reserving a name first costs $25, and same-day processing adds $50, or $425 for two-hour service. For the full filing order, our guide to starting an LLC in Maryland walks each SDAT step from the name check onward.

Then comes the recurring bill. Every Maryland LLC files an Annual Report, Form 1, with SDAT each year for $300, due April 15 whether or not the business earned anything; there is no version of a Maryland LLC that skips it. The state also requires what it calls a resident agent, at a Maryland street address, and we size up the registered agent services in Maryland that can serve in that role.

Founders who would rather not file alone can browse our ranked review of best LLC services in Maryland, sorted by price and turnaround.

Two Layers of Income Tax, Plus a New One on Tech

Maryland taxes personal income in two layers. The state rate is graduated, from 2% up to a 5.75% top, with new 6.25% and 6.50% brackets added for high earners in the 2025 session and a 2% surtax on net capital gains. On top of that, every county and Baltimore City levies its own piggyback income tax, set locally within a statutory band of 2.25% to 3.30%. Corporations pay a flat 8.25%.

• Sales tax is 6% statewide, with no local add-on anywhere in Maryland.
• A new 3% sales tax now applies to data and IT services and software publishing, which lands on computer systems design, the state’s largest knowledge-economy sector.
• Unprepared groceries are exempt, while prepared and restaurant food is taxed at 6%.
• The minimum wage is $15.00 for all employers under the Fair Wage Act; Montgomery, Howard and Prince George’s counties set higher local floors, and the tipped cash wage is $3.63.

A hundred dollars opens the door, three hundred keeps it open every year, and the income tax arrives in two layers with a third now reaching the very sector Maryland is known for: high pay here comes paired with a real bill.

The Maryland Numbers, Reader by Reader

Sources

• Business counts, dynamics, ownership and export figures are set out in the SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2025 Maryland Small Business Profile.
• Sector, subsector and county cells for 2024 are read from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• The Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics record applications month by month, and its Nonemployer Statistics account for the solo businesses.
• Fiscal 2024 lending was totaled from the SBA’s 7(a) and 504 FOIA datasets.
• Both GDP measures are the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional accounts‘, current and inflation-adjusted.
• The LLC filing and annual-report fees are written into the Maryland Code, Corporations and Associations Article.
• Income, sales and corporate tax rates follow the Maryland Code, Tax-General Article.
• The $15 minimum wage is published by the Maryland Department of Labor.
• The 2023 travel figures were reported in the Maryland Office of Tourism’s economic-impact study.