DENVER - The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s (CDLE) Division of Labor Standards and Statistics (DLSS) will execute a constitutionally mandated minimum wage adjustment in the Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards Order (“COMPS Order”). From $12.00 this 2020, the minimum wage will adjust for inflation on January 1, 2021 to $12.32. Meanwhile, wages for tipped workers will increase to $9.30 per hour.

The hikes in minimum wage are tied to two ballot measures: in 2006, which tied adjustments in minimum wage to inflation; and in 2016, when voters approved Amendment 70, which mandated increases $9.30 per hour, beginning in 2017, and rising to $12 per hour by 2020. After 2020, the changes in minimum wage revert back to the 2006 law.a

The minimum wage hike was proposed last September 30 and went through a public hearing on November 2nd, and a comment period continuing through November 5th. Final rules were made and adopted last November 10th to be effective January 1st.

Minimum wage calculation

Inflation for Colorado is calculated and published by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it rose 2.7% from the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2020, the mid-year comparison method Colorado has always used to set and notify Coloradans in advance of the coming year’s minimum wage. A 2.7% increase to the minimum wage yields $12.32, or $9.30 for workers receiving enough in tips to total at least $12.32, because the Colorado law allows a $3.02 lower wage for workers receiving enough tips for total pay to meet or exceed the full minimum wage.

At least 29 states have a higher minimum wage than Colordo’s federal minimum wage, which is currently set at $7.25 per hour. The highest in the nation is in the District of Columbia, currently at $14 per hour. At least eight states have minimum wage requirements of $12 per hour or higher. All but Colorado are either on the East Coast or the West Coast.

Last November, the Congressional Budget Office reported raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour (tipped minimum at $11.10 per hour) would benefit 17 million workers by 2026, but would cause 1.3 million people to lose their jobs.

Below is the Colorado minimum wage for the past decade and 2021

Make sure to put up Colorado and Federal labor law poster about this hike and be familiar with the latest’s laws to be enacted this 2021.