Next time you’re at the grocery store, keep track of what $8.23 will buy. Maybe it’s a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and some vegetables. Whatever the choices, the money won’t go far — and the point here is that thousands of Coloradans work hard and try to make ends meet on $8.23 per hour, the current minimum wage. They have to find a way to pay for housing, food, health care, transportation, shoes and clothing, and the ever-growing cost of child care. It’s difficult to imagine how anyone can afford even just the essentials on minimum wage — let alone have anything left over for education or retirement.

These strains are driving a nationwide movement to increase the minimum wage, and that’s why I fought twice to move ours at least slightly closer to a livable wage. One bill would have allowed local governments to set their own minimum wage, so workers who serve people in wealthier cities might be able to afford rent or have more stability. The other would have put a measure on the ballot asking for an increase of a dollar per year through 2020.

Unfortunately, the Republican Senate President sent both measures to a Senate “kill committee.” As the name suggests, they both died there, although it’s worth noting that HB 15-1300 passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives before it met its demise.

Without some action, the minimum wage will merely continue to grow at a snail’s pace, as it did in past years. Tied only to Colorado’s rate of inflation, it increased 14 cents per hour in 2013, 22 cents per hour in 2014, and 23 cents per hour in 2015.

That’s piggy-bank pennies, with no increase in purchasing power, especially when you consider the realities of modern-day living.

The big one — the cost of housing — is through the roof. The website rentjungle.com reports that the average one-bedroom apartment in Denver rents for $1,275 per month. Multiplied by 12 months, this alone equals $15,300 per year in cash, while minimum wage for a year adds up to about $17,118 — before taxes. Of course a minimum wage worker could try to find cheaper digs, or share expenses with a partner or roommates, but rent still eats up a huge part of a worker’s hard-earned paycheck. This just doesn’t leave much for everything else, and that’s an economic problem.

It’s pretty simple. If people have earnings beyond the cost of bare necessities, they will spend — in turn benefiting businesses in their local communities. In fact, it is estimated that consumer spending equals about 70 percent of our gross domestic product. Henry Ford knew this a century ago — if his workers made a fair wage, they could afford his Model Ts, and he did better business as a result.

Undoubtedly, my bill and resolution this year attracted concern from Capitol business groups and their lobbyists. I would counter that some of the same concerns surfaced in 2006 when voters passed Amendment 42 to establish our current minimum wage, but today Colorado’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since the recession.

There are also moral issues galore at play here. Our society is spending billions on social safety net programs for low-wage workers that could be avoided if folks just made a livable wage — notably food stamps to make sure people aren’t starving, and health care subsidies to make sure people have access to doctors if they’re injured or ill. And fundamentally, too many people are suffering the quiet despair of living in uncertainty, one bad break away from financial disaster and the immense personal problems that come with it.

Despite this year’s legislative defeats, I intend to keep fighting for fairness, and I know many Coloradans are on my side even if Senate Republicans are not.

— Sen. Michael Merrifield is a Democrat representing Colorado Springs