Copyright Boulder Daily Camera
Returning to a conversation about an appropriate minimum wage for Boulder County, commissioners are using the city of Boulder as a starting point. On Tuesday, Boulder County commissioners expressed support for a new schedule of local wage increases that draws from the city of Boulder’s wage schedule. This new schedule would set the county’s minimum wage at $16.82 per hour — the same as Boulder’s — beginning Jan. 1, 2026. Starting in 2027, according to the proposed plan, the county minimum wage would be tied to the Consumer Price Index. Assuming an annual CPI increase of 3%, this would put the county minimum wage at $18.93 per hour in 2030, county staff shared during Tuesday’s meeting. The minimum wage in unincorporated Boulder County currently is $16.57 per hour. Under Boulder County’s current schedule, approved by commissioners in 2023, the minimum wage is set for an annual increase of roughly 8.6% until it reaches $25 per hour in 2030. Boulder’s minimum wage is currently $15.57 per hour. It is set to increase by 8% each year before following the CPI starting on Jan. 1, 2028. Commissioners voted to direct staff to draft an ordinance that would modify the previously adopted local minimum wage plan. No date is set yet for the first reading of the ordinance. Commissioners Marta Loachamin and Claire Levy voted in favor of moving forward with the new ordinance. Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann voted against the plan, wanting to maintain the previous schedule of increases. At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners considered a variety of options for a revised wage schedule, including one that would have kept the minimum wage at its current rate of $16.57 an hour until 2030. . Levy said adjusting the wage increase schedule is the right course of action based on the negative reactions to the original schedule adopted by commissioners in 2023. The county’s planned schedule of wage increases has drawn complaints from business owners in unincorporated Boulder County. Last week, commissioners held a public hearing where those in favor of the schedule argued that employees need an income that will help them live in the communities where they work. Those opposed to the planned increases — a contingent that includes small businesses owners and farmers — claimed the higher labor costs will hurt them. On Tuesday, Loachamin addressed the argument made by some employers that they already pay their workers more than $16.57 per hour. She said setting a minimum wage for the county that is higher than the current one is important for workers. “It just does provide, in my mind, some security to workers to know if they make a commitment to be in Boulder County that they won’t be working for less than this amount,” Loachamin said. Stolzmann, who cast the lone dissenting vote, wanted her fellow commissioners to take a “bold stand” and tell Boulder County workers who provide key services that they deserve to make $25 an hour by 2030. “During the pandemic, people lined the streets with signs calling workers who earn minimum wage heroes,” Stolzmann said. “We have to stop letting down the people we call heroes of the community.” The county’s minimum wage only applies to unincorporated areas of the county, which include Gunbarrel, Hygiene and Niwot.
