Colorado’s minimum wage quietly went up on Jan. 1, as planned by the passage of Amendment 70 in November 2016 with 55.4 percent of the vote. The second of four stepped increases the ballot measure authorized between 2016 and 2020 took the wage paid hourly workers from $8.31 per hour in 2016 to $9.30 in 2017, and $10.20 as of Monday.

It will increase two more times on Jan. 1 in 2019 and 2020 until it reaches $12 per hour. Tipped worker wages also increased from $5.29 in Jan. 2016 to $7.18 in 2018 and will top out in 2020 at $8.98. By comparison, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, just over $15,000 per year ($3,000 more than the 2017 federal poverty level for a one person household), and has not changed since July 2009.

Locally, as of July 2017, La Plata County’s Thrive Living Wage Coalition has calculated the hourly living wage for a single person in La Plata County as $13.31 per hour or $27,684 per year; a parent plus one pre-school child at $23.41 or $48,693 per year; and two adults with one pre-school and one school-aged child at $28.84 per hour or $59,987 per year.

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