Colorado, Arizona, Washington and Maine all voted to boost minimum wage to $12 per hour
By Aldo Svaldi
Denver Post, Updated November 16, 2016
Business owners across the state are crunching the numbers and trying to figure out their next moves after Colorado joined Arizona, Washington and Maine in approving a $12-an-hour minimum wage on Tuesday.
While businesses who backed the higher wage say they think it could be good for their employees and their business, many are doing a calculation that involves finding the right balance between passing on higher costs to customers, adjusting staffing and work hours, and looking for other cost savings. ...
More than 300 business owners came out in favor of a higher minimum wage, some citing moral arguments that workers in the state shouldn’t have to subsist on poverty-level wages that required some of them to rely on public assistance to get by.
They also argued that better-paid workers are more productive and do a better job at keeping customers satisfied. Lower turnover means lower training and a more efficient staff, which will generate some of the savings needed to cover higher wages.
Judy Amabile, owner of Polar Bottle in Boulder, lifted her company’s starting wage to $12 and hour from $8, which helped workers cope with basic tasks like car repairs and securing reliable child care.
“Absenteeism and turnover decreased dramatically. Our per-unit labor costs actually went down,” she said in a statement after the vote. ...
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