NFIB/Colorado is joining other business groups to oppose Amendment 70, which, if passed, would make our state less competitive.
From the Keep Colorado Working campaign:
This November, Colorado voters will be asked to vote for Amendment 70—a measure that would increase the minimum wage in Colorado to $12 per hour by 2020, and allow it to continue to grow with inflation each year thereafter.
This amendment would increase Colorado’s minimum wage by 44 percent and would have devastating impacts on Colorado’s economy. Particularly impacted by this measure would be small businesses, which represent just under 97 percent of Colorado’s employment opportunities, and businesses in rural Colorado.
This measure is a one-size-fits-all mandate, is too extreme for Colorado, and would harm the very people it is intended to help by reducing job opportunities statewide.
- This summer, Economics International Corp. released a study that projects that 90,000 jobs in Colorado will be lost by 2022 if this initiative passes. Further, this study found that the state would lose up to $3.9 billion annually in lost wages once the measure is fully implemented.
- Additional studies related to these types of minimum-wage increases had similar findings. In February of this year, the Congressional Budget Office stated that a federal minimum-wage increase to $10.10, would cost 500,000 jobs across the country.
- In July, the University of Washington released a study on Seattle’s minimum wage increase, which was bumped to $11/hour in 2015. A recent review of that measure concluded that the minimum-wage hike actually caused weekly earnings to drop and the unemployment rate among minimum-wage earners in that city has increased.
Keep Colorado Working is a diverse coalition formed to defeat this amendment. Numerous organizations have come out against Amendment 70, including the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Colorado Restaurant Association, Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association, Colorado Business Roundtable, Colorado Farm Bureau and all local farm bureau chapters, Common Sense Policy Roundtable, and many others. Keep Colorado Working understands the importance of small businesses, which will be hit hardest by this amendment.
Visit KeepColoradoWorking.com for more information about the campaign and how you can help.
