Business

Bank of America announced Wednesday it has raised its U.S. minimum hourly wage to $21 as a next step in the company’s plans to increase to $25 by 2025. In May, the company also announced that all of its U.S. vendors are now required to pay their employees dedicated to the bank, at or above $15 per hour. The move by Bank of America, the largest bank in Maryland and the second-biggest in the nation, is part of a broader movement to elevate minimum pay levels by retailers, financial institutions and other businesses as employers compete for workers in a tight labor market.

Johns Hopkins University plans to build a 126,200-square-foot medical office and surgery center as it embarks on its development of the Belward Farm in Montgomery County. The project marks the first of several phases of development at the 108-acre Belward Farm site, which used to be mired in controversy. Late anti-development activist Elizabeth Beall Banks sold her farm, located at the intersection of Muddy Branch and Darnestown Road, at a cut rate to Johns Hopkins in 1989 so the land could be preserved and used for the creation of a bucolic campus.

Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) just took another step to bring its Covid-19 vaccine candidate to the global stage, resulting in a stock surge once again. The Gaithersburg biotech said Thursday it has applied to the World Health Organization for an emergency use listing for its coronavirus vaccine, partnering with the Serum Institute of India on the bid.

Weller Development has hired two retail brokerages to begin leasing at Port Covington this fall. Baltimore-based Cana Development, which has worked on the tenant turnaround at Cross Street Market as well as leasing and management at Mt. Vernon Marketplace, and the national McDevitt Co. will oversee efforts to lease 116,000 square feet of space in the first phase of the Port Covington redevelopment.

Tenable Holdings Inc. is making its second acquisition this year, and its fourth ever, with plans to purchase a California company for $160 million in cash. The Columbia-based cyber firm said Monday it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Accurics Inc., a company that specializes in cloud-native security, an approach to cybersecurity that fully focuses on the cloud instead of on-premises technology.

Maryland officials welcomed four new super cranes to the Port of Baltimore on Thursday that will enable one of the state’s biggest economic contributors to handle even more cargo and continue to grow jobs. The cranes will operate at the Seagirt Marine Terminal, where the Maryland Port Administration and Ports America Chesapeake recently completed construction and dredging of a second 50-foot deep berth. The second deep berth enables the Port of Baltimore to handle two super-sized cargo ships simultaneously.

College sports changed forever this summer when the NCAA adopted new rules allowing student-athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness. The NCAA’s new rules came after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously confirmed a lower court’s ruling that the college sports governing body’s prior restrictions on student compensation violated antitrust law.