DENVER – A ballot proposal to raise the minimum wage in Colorado was filed on Thursday.
The effort comes just a day after Republicans in the state Legislature blocked an effort to allow local governments to raise wages in their counties.
“Raising my wage just $2 an hour would help me afford rent, food, health care for my family, and maybe even save up for a more reliable car or for my daughter’s college,” Mary Collins, a Colorado home health care worker, said in a statement distributed by the campaign on Thursday.
Colorado Families for a Fair Wage has proposed gradually increasing the state minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020.
Business leaders, however, say the effort would squeeze certain entry-level workers out of the job market because employers would cut positions to adjust to new labor costs.
But proponents of the initiative say the issue is about helping working families crawl out of poverty.
Full-time workers make $8.31 an hour under the state’s minimum wage, about $17,000 per year. Proponents say the wage has not kept up with cost-of-living increases.
Supporters must collect 98,492 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot if their petition language is approved by the state.
“Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense,” said Richard Correa, a proponent of the effort. “Workers will spend their needed minimum wage increases at the grocery, hardware store, auto repair and other businesses.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com