Colorado’s minimum wage will drop slightly in the new year – the first decrease in any state’s minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938.
Colorado’s wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That’s because Colorado is one of 10 states that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. The goal is to protect low-wage workers from having unchanged paychecks as the cost of living goes up.
But Colorado’s provision also allows wage declines, and the state’s consumer price index fell 0.6 percent last year, so the minimum wage is going down.
Being the first minimum wage to drop, it is really harsh. Workers have to subsist on minimum wage know how hard it is. It is close to impossible to do very much – it isn’t to say that no one can subsist, but subsisting and prospering are two different things. Since several states peg minimum wage to costs of living, recessions lead invariably to decreased wages – for instance, the [url=http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2010/01/04/dip-minimum-wage-brings-income-moral/]Colorado minimum wage[/url].