Through the efforts of Colorado Families for a Fair Wage, Amendment 70, if passed, would give Colorado’s minimum-wage workers a raise. Opponents say the increase would reduce employee hours because of the cost to businesses.Under current Colorado law, the minimum wage is $8.31 and increases yearly based on the Consumer Price Index used for Colorado. CPI is frequently used as a measure of inflation. Colorado’s minimum wage increased 8 cents in 2016 and 23 cents in 2015.Amendment 70 would change Section 15 of Article 18 of the state Constitution and raise the minimum wage to $9.30, effective Jan. 1, 2017. The minimum wage would automatically increase by 90 cents per year until it reaches $12 per hour in 2020. After 2020, increases would be set by the CPI cost-of-living adjustments.According to CFFW, the minimum wage was created to keep working families out of poverty, but the actual cost of living in Colorado has increased about 65 percent faster than the CPI between 2001 and 2015. ìIn Colorado, a minimum-wage worker needs to work 80 hours per week to afford a basic two-bedroom apartment,î said Jenny Davies, spokeswoman for CFFW.The opposition group, Keep Colorado Working, states that Colorado has raised its minimum wage more in the last 10 years than any other state, resulting in one of the highest minimum wages in the country.The majority of the $1.7 million raised to support Amendment 70 has come from the National Education Association, the Center for Popular Democracy and the Fairness Project, a nationwide group supporting minimum wage increase initiatives in four states this November.Keep Colorado Working has raised about $540,000. Most of the funds were contributed by political action committees and groups representing hospitality, restaurants and small rural business interests.
