Gov. Polis signs local minimum wage bill into law
It’s no hidden secret that different parts of Colorado have vastly different costs of living, and a new law signed Tuesday by Gov. Jared Polis will let local areas set their own minimum wages in response to a growing economy that is leaving low-income earners behind. HB19-1210 was passed by the Colorado House in March before being approved in the Senate. The new law gives local governments the power to enforce a higher minimum wage than the state’s rate. It comes on the heels of cities like Seattle and San Francisco enacting $15-per-hour minimum wages. HB19-1210 lets 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. The current minimum wage in Colorado is $11.10 per 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. Wages haven’t grown much, either. In Colorado Springs, per-capita incomes have only grown by about three percent over the last five years. 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. ” Colorado is a very big, diverse state and economic situations can be very different in different areas of the state. One size does not fit all when it comes to addressing the needs of every Coloradan, ” said Rep. Jovan Melton, one of the sponsors of the bill. “This is really about allowing local communities to decide what is best for them.” The law takes effect in 2020, and the first local minimum wages may be in place by 2021. Read the full text of the bill HERE.
