All is quiet on the minimum-wage front at the moment, but don’t think last year’s passage of Amendment 70 is any long-term cease fire. Advocates for higher rates will kick off the 2018 session of the Colorado General Assembly with a push to let cities and counties set their own minimum-wage rates.

New research put out by the National Federation of Independent Business is worth every Colorado policymaker’s attention. The minimum wage is not the only issue measured by NFIB’s Small Business Poll, Job Openings, an update on the one published 10 years ago. Other interesting findings include:

Work history, social skills, legal issues, wage expectations, English/math competencies, and drugs were other reasons for applicant disqualification. Only the last showed a slight increase over the 2007 poll.

How small employers advertise open positions, how they’re compensating employees, how they promote, how they’re dealing with federal immigration requirements are also asked. It is, however, questions on the minimum wage that are most valuable for state legislators, given their direct influence on it.

“Would a minimum wage increase to $15 phased in over the next 3 years have a negative impact, positive impact or no impact on your business?”

Taking the results from just the 1-to-9-employee group, the poll asked what immediate actions small-business owners take when hit with a minimum-wage increase. (Some would take simultaneous actions, which is why the percentages don’t add up to 100)

Amendment 70 is not as draconian as the proposed minimum-wage increase in the Job Openings poll. It increases the rate by 90 cents a year until 2020 when it would reach $12 an hour. Still, the coping actions being taken now by small-business owners are the same, mainly higher prices for consumers and loss of job opportunities, especially for teens and young adults.

It is forever worth reminding everyone that the minimum wage is earned by just 2.7 percent of the nation’s workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and most of them tend to be young. “Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, about 10 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 2 percent of workers age 25 and older.”

In short, the minimum wage is an entry-level wage earned mostly by teenagers and young adults. One major effect in increasing the minimum wage is eliminating entry-level jobs. Despite these facts, proponents of ever-increasing rates wrongly argue that they’re needed to lift people out of poverty, even though little to no evidence exists to back it up.

Not content with Amendment 70’s passage, minimum-wage advocates now want the Colorado Legislature to allow local governments the ability to set their own rates, which would create a crazy quilt of minimum-wage rates throughout the state and a commensurate paperwork migraine for every business.

If NFIB’s recent poll reminds of us of anything, it’s that costs have consequences.