Democrats this week began what is likely to be a multi-year effort to persuade fellow lawmakers and the public to support a hike in the minimum wage.

Monday, supporters held a rally on the west steps of the state Capitol, with a crowd numbering well over 250, to show support for two measures scheduled for hearing later that day.

House Concurrent Resolution 15-1001 seeks to raise Colorado’s current minimum wage of $8.23 per hour to $9.50 per hour, starting Jan. 1, 2017. The minimum wage would increase annually until it reaches $12.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2020.

House Bill 15-1300 would allow local governments to enact their own minimum wage laws, repealing a statute from 1999 that banned local governments from setting their own minimum wage laws.

Both measures got 6-to-5 party-line support Monday from the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

And therein lays the problem.

Both measures lack support from Republican legislators. Democrats should be able to get HB 1300 through the House, but getting it through the Senate is close to impossible. And getting at least 10 Republicans to vote for the concurrent measure in the House isn’t likely this year, either.

Speaker Pro Tem Dan Pabon, D-Denver, told The Colorado Statesman this week that he believed the effort to increase the minimum wage is a nonpartisan issue. “There aren’t Democratic minimum wage earners or Republican minimum wage earners. If the folks on the other side of the aisle don’t get on board with this, shame on them. We want everyone to experience economic recovery, not just the select few.”

That said, Pabon acknowledged that getting both measures through the General Assembly will likely take more than this session. “The effort to increase the minimum wage is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. This is the first step to earning that support.”

Pabon pointed to stagnant wages in the state, and noted that the economic recovery has not yet reached those at the low end of the pay scale. “This makes a strong statement that we need to keep wages in line with our economic recovery,” he said.

Monday’s rally featured comments from low-wage earners from McDonalds, Walmart and assisted living facilities. Most work more than one job to support their families, and several speakers commented that they don’t have health insurance, they need food stamps to survive and rely on subsidized housing.

Many of those at the rally, however, would like to see the minimum wage go to $15 per hour, not the $12.50 per hour proposed in HCR 1001.

A person who works full-time on the current minimum wage makes $17,000 per year. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty threshold for the 48 contiguous states for 2015 is $11,770 for one person; $15,930 for two persons; for a household of two adults and one child (or one adult and two children), it’s $20,090; and for two adults and two children, it’s $24,250.

Lashanda Myrick of Denver, who works at Walmart, told those at the rally that she makes $9.50 per year with a $2 per hour shift-differential. That equals a take-home pay $718 every two weeks. A recent 40-cent per hour raise rendered her ineligible for food stamps, and she now struggles to figure out how to feed her two children.

Monday’s hearing did not lack for opponents, which included the Colorado Restaurant Association, the Colorado chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry.

Patrick Boyle, testifying on behalf of the Colorado Competitiveness Council, said his group is generally opposed to minimum wage laws because it results in workers losing their jobs. Permitting local governments to establish their own minimum wages will distort employment decisions and complicate business, especially for small businesses, and particularly in border areas. Boyle did not provide evidence to back his claims.

This week, the Pew Charitable Trusts issued a report, Fiscal 50: Trends and Analysis, which looked at employment trends in the 50 states. Employment rates for the 25 to 54-age group are still below prerecession levels, the report said. Colorado ranked 11th, with more than 80 percent of that age group employed, above the national average of 76.7 percent.

The only state in the country with employment above prerecession levels is Minnesota. Its governor, Democrat Mark Dayton, last year signed legislation to boost the minimum wage gradually from $6.15 an hour to $9.50 per hour by 2016, the first hike in a decade. Dayton inherited a 7 percent unemployment rate from his predecessor, Republican Tim Pawlenty; today, four years later, the unemployment rate, according to the state’s labor department, is 3.7 percent.

HB 1300 and HCR 1001 were both sent to the full House for debate.

— Marianne@coloradostatesman.com