skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

New Minimum-Wage Law Could Bring Relief to High-Cost CO Counties

play audio
Play

Friday, May 31, 2019   

DENVER – Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1210 into law this week, repealing a 1999 prohibition against local governments creating their own minimum wages.

Chris Stiffler, an economist with the Colorado Fiscal Institute, says the measure opens the door for counties and cities to address significant cost-of-living disparities across the state. He adds Colorado has seen tremendous growth in low-pay service jobs in the past several decades, all while housing and other costs continue to rise.

"The cost of college education, cost of groceries, all going up faster than wages are growing,” says Stiffler. “And so, acknowledging that a quarter to 20 percent of our workforce are low-wage workers that also need to make a living and thrive in Colorado, addressing the minimum wage is one way to get there."

Stiffler notes workers earning the state minimum, $11.10 an hour, have to put in over three weeks a month full time to cover rent on an average two-bedroom apartment in places like Boulder or Denver. He says that same $1,500 apartment costs just $500 in places like Yuma.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage have warned that businesses would likely relocate, eliminate jobs, or reduce worker hours in order to maintain profitability.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found that wage increases in bordering states did not lead to job loss, but increased worker spending power and boosted local economies. Stiffler admits that some workers could lose hours in businesses operating on slim margins, but he doesn't believe that owners will lay off large swaths of people or move their operations.

"You can't export your restaurant to Kansas, if your restaurant has to be in Vail serving skiers,” says Stiffler. “The demand for labor is a lot more inelastic. They need workers; they're not going to can as many workers as they are leading on."

He notes Colorado has become a much more expensive state in recent years, and ranks in the top five for states where workers are forced to spend over half their income on rent.

Under the new law, municipalities can change local minimum wages starting in 2020. Increases will be capped at 15% annually, and new wage levels wouldn't go into effect until January of 2021.

Disclosure: Colorado Fiscal Institute contributes to our fund for reporting on Budget Policy & Priorities, Census, Education, Livable Wages/Working Families. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021