Colorado Minimum Wage To Go Up in New Year

As of January 1, Colorado's minimum wage goes up. 

From $9.30 to $10.20 an hour. Which is great for a lot of Colorado workers. However, this comes with many, many questions.

• What if you are currently making $10.00 an hour. Do you stay at that wage? Legally, I guess you couldn't because the minimum would be $10.20. But, isn't the fact that you were being paid 70 cents above the minimum wage mean that you are worth more than the lowest possible? But, now you are right back on the bottom. Will all relative wages rise up on a sliding scale because of this increase? That would seem like the only fair step.

• What does this mean for Grand Junction area businesses? It tuns out several have already been preparing for this. That money to pay the wage increases has to come from somewhere. Options are to cut employee hours, slash labor costs or to even raise prices. Ugh!

• How will this affect the community? In theory, with more money in these employees pockets, that should lead to more money flowing back into the system and staying local.

Is it a perfect solution? No, but we voted for it and no we have to help make it work to benefit everyone.