By Charles Ashby
The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, CO), Feb 18, 2016
A group that wants to raise the state’s minimum wage filed a proposed ballot measure with the state Thursday to do just that. The group, which called itself Colorado Families for a Fair Wage, filed two proposed citizen’s initiatives that call for raising the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. The current minimum wage is $8.31.
“Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense,” Richard Correa, owner of Correa Insurance Agency on the Front Range, said in a news release. “Workers will spend their needed minimum wage increases at grocery, hardware stores, auto repair and other businesses. And business will benefit from lower turnover, greater productivity and better customer service as employees are more invested in businesses that are more invested in them.”
The group says that about 84 percent of workers in Colorado who make less than $12 an hour are over the age of 20, adding that many support families.
The proposed ballot measure, which has yet to go before the state’s Initiative Title Setting Review Board, calls for raising the minimum wage 90 cents a year starting in 2017 until it reaches $12. After that, the measure, like current law, calls for increasing it annually to account for inflation. ...
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