Living Wage - League of Women Voters® of Boulder County

HomeLiving Wage Campaign 2023–2025

Living Wage Campaign 2023–2025

Where we are now . . .

Boulder City Council voted unanimously on October 10th to raise the minimum wage in the city by 8% a year for three years, from the present state minimum of $14.42/hour to $15.57/hour in 2025, $16.82 in 2026, and $18.17 in 2027.

This was a special meeting of council for the introduction, first reading, and consideration of "Ordinance 8644 adding a new Chapter 12-6, 'Minimum Wage,' B.R.C. 1981, setting a local City of Boulder minimum wage to be competitive and responsive to current and future needs of its community; and setting forth related details."

Status of unemancipated minors: The proposed increase includes unemancipated minors. We support this decision.

At the public hearing before the vote over 50 people testified, all but 5 supporting an increased minimum wage.

The council also considered an amendment that would bring Boulder in line with the steeper increase plan of the County Commissioners. (Scroll down to the chart.) This plan had considerable support at the public hearing. The amendment failed 4-5.
- Council members Lauren Folkerts, Nicole Speer, and Ryan Schuchard and Mayor Aaron Brockett supported the amendment.
- It called for a 15% increase for 2025, to $16.57, and increases in 2026 and 2027 that bring Boulder to $19.52 in 2027.

What we're up against: Council members in all five municipalities are facing pushback by local small businesses questioning the community engagement feedback and the economic data. (See more about that information below.)

Lafayette and Longmont City Councils and Erie Town Council have not yet reached a decision. Each has asked for more input.
Your council members need to hear from you!
A livable minimum wage strengthens a local economy and benefits employers and employees alike.

Louisville City Council in a straw poll voted not to consider raising the minimum wage.
Louisville residents: Ask your council members to reconsider.

County Commissioners responded in 2023

In 2023, our Boulder County Commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance that increased the 2024 minimum wage in unincorporated areas of the county to $15.69 per hour. That is 15% above the state minimum ($13.65 in 2023), as state law allows.
In 2025 the increase is 5.67%, to $16.57. After that, increases in 2026 through 2030 are 8.58%, arriving at $25 an hour in 2030.

Details are under "Important Points . . . " below.

Some background

Since 2019, Colorado law has allowed local governments to raise the minimum wage for all workers, not just municipal employees.

By law, various stakeholders—groups that are impacted by the outcome of this effort--are required to participate in the process before the minimum wage can be raised. Stakeholders include chambers of commerce, small and large businesses, businesses that employ tipped workers, workers, labor unions, and community groups.

Yearly increases cannot exceed 15%.

The Boulder County Self-Sufficiency Wage Coalition

Our organization is a member of the Boulder County Self-Sufficiency Wage Coalition, an advocacy group formed in 2023 of labor organizations, nonprofits, faith communities, and other community organizations.

We support the efforts of the Boulder County Consortium of Cities, which is made up of elected officials, to achieve a minimum wage at the self-sufficiency level throughout the county. The self-sufficiency level is what a worker needs to earn to pay basic living expenses without assistance. The lowest paid workers in particular are struggling in the face of the rising cost of living,

Municipalities are responding in 2024

Two kinds of information is available to city and town councils in Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Longmont, and Erie to make their decisions: community engagement feedback and economic data.

• Community engagement feedback. — From February into April 2024 a number of virtual and in-person engagement opportunities, with English and Spanish options, took place in each municipality. Discussions included information about how much people are currently being paid, how people feel about raising the minimum wage, and any positive and negative impacts that may come to individuals, businesses, and the community. People were also invited to respond to an online questionnaire.

• Economic data. — A study was commissioned from a third-party consultant, ECOnorthwest, to analyze economic factors in the county and make recommendations about raising the minimum wage.

All of the material is linked from the web page Exploring an Increase in the Minimum Wage.

Boulder, Lafayette, Louisville, Longmont, and Erie councils have heard staff presentations of the material, including a virtual discussion with the ECOnorthwest researcher in charge of the Boulder County study. Videos are available on YouTube:
  Boulder - Aug 22, 2024 - at 2:26:00
  Lafayette - Sept 3, 2024 - at 2:25:50
  Longmont - Aug 27. 2024 - at 20:30
  Louisville - Sept 10, 2024

Important points in the 2023–2030 projections by the County Commissioners

• The “pause” in 2025 (5.67% increase, below 8.58%) is intended to allow the municipalities to get aligned with the County, should they wish to do so. The Colorado minimum wage is $14.42 in 2024, and the municipalities are limited to a 15% increase in any year. That limits the municipalities to $16.57 in 2025.

• The coalition advocates $25.00 in 2028. The commissioners' $25 by 2030 represents a delay of 2 years.

Current minimum wage
In 2024, Colorado's minimum wage increased from $13.65 per hour to $14.42 per hour, and from $10.63 to $11.40 for tipped employees.
Denver's minimum wage rose to $18.29 per hour.

Colorado’s minimum wage is adjusted annually for cost-of-living changes. In 2025 it will increase to $16.52. Denver’s will be $18.81 in 2025.

More figures

• Boulder County pays all its own employees a minimum of $22.44 per hour, as set by the county's livable wage policy.
• In Boulder County the self-sufficiency wage is $21.41— what a worker needs to earn to pay basic living expenses without assistance.
• The City and County of Denver implemented a local minimum wage in 2020.
• The Boulder County Self-Sufficiency Wage Coalition's original proposal would have gradually raised the minimum wage to $25/hour by 2028 (not 2030).
See the coalition factsheet.

More reading

- Read the Local Minimum Wage Report 2023 from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

- LWVBC was involved in successful campaigns in Boulder and Longmont to help increase the minimum wages of workers and contractors employed by those cities to a living wage. Read about the Longmont Living Wage Coalition in 2019 – the campaign, its successes.