Bill introduced to let Colorado cities, counties set minimum wage

Cities and counties in Colorado may soon be able to set their own minimum wage exceeding the state minimum.

House Bill 19-1210 was introduced Monday to give local governments the power to enforce a higher minimum wage. It comes on the heels of cities like Seattle and San Francisco enacting $15-an-hour minimum wages.

The bill has support in both the House and the Senate, and it aims to help residents in cities with higher costs of living.

“Despite a statewide minimum wage rate, many Colorado workers struggle to afford the basic necessities of life; the cost of living can vary significantly from one community to another in Colorado,” the bill reads.

The current minimum wage in Colorado is $11.10 an hour, and it’s going up to $12 by next year. According to a 2015 report by the Colorado Fiscal Institute, nearly a quarter of the state’s workforce — about 600,000 workers — earned below $12 an hour.

If a worker earns $12 an hour and works 40 hours a week, that works out to about $25,000 a year before taxes. While that might be fine for very rural areas with low cost of living, it pales in comparison to what’s needed for Colorado Springs, let alone Denver. According to a report by Forbes, you need more than $60,000 to live comfortably in the Springs.

HB19-1210 would let cities, counties, or other local governments set minimum wages and the punishments for those who break the law. It essentially removes the prohibitions against local governments setting their own minimum wages. The local minimum wages can’t be lower than the state’s minimum.

If the bill is passed as is, it’ll take effect on the day after the ninety-day period following the final adjournment of the General Assembly (which should be in early August.) If a referendum petition is filed against the act or part of the act, it will go to a vote in the Nov. 2020 general election.

Read the full text HERE.