On April 28, the Maryland governor signed into law SB 94, which revises the state’s earned wage access framework effective October 1. The law prohibits consumer and commercial lenders and earned wage access providers from soliciting or receiving tips from consumers. Under prior law, lenders were permitted to offer consumers the option to tip so long as the default was set at zero. The new law eliminates that option entirely and requires lenders to prominently disclose that tipping is prohibited. Lenders who receive a tip must return it within seven days, shortened from the prior 30-day window. The law also extends to earned wage access providers certain consumer protection and nondiscrimination obligations that mirror existing provisions governing consumer and commercial loans, including prohibitions on false, misleading, or deceptive advertising of fees, rates or terms. Providers may not discriminate in granting or denying earned wage access on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, or age. Licensed providers and persons exempt from licensing are shielded from penalties for good faith acts performed in conformity with a written opinion of the attorney general, the commissioner of financial regulation, or an approved form or procedure.