Facing strong opposition from fellow Democrats and labor groups, sponsors of a bill that would have lowered the tipped minimum wage in Boulder and other cities with higher local minimum wages made significant changes late Friday night, March 14.
House Bill 1208 seeks to decouple tipped and non-tipped wages in cities with local minimum wages. Currently, when a city raises its minimum wage, the tipped wage rises automatically — something that happened recently in Boulder. Restaurant owners say this has placed additional financial strain on an already struggling industry. The original bill would have required Boulder and similar cities to reset their tipped wage to the state’s lower level, which labor advocates argued would amount to a pay cut for thousands of workers.
Under the revised bill, cities would no longer be forced to cut or freeze tipped wages. Instead, municipalities would have the option to lower them, provided they remain above the state’s tipped minimum of $11.79 per hour. The bill maintains Colorado’s existing rule that tipped wages must be at least $3.02 less than the local minimum wage but gives cities flexibility to lower that amount. The idea is to help struggling restaurants and make it easier for cities to raise regular wages without automatically increasing tipped wages, too.
Labor groups that fought against mandatory wage cuts view the amendments as a victory, though some still believe cities should have more power to further reduce the $3.02 gap. Meanwhile, restaurant owners say the changes give them needed relief from automatic wage increases.
Boulder City Councilmember Nicole Speer credited workers and advocates for successfully resisting what she called “an attempt by Democratic state lawmakers to lower tipped workers’ minimum wages.”
“I think giving cities complete local control over the tip credit is the best way to go,” she said in a recent newsletter. Had Boulder been able to adjust its tipped minimum wage last fall, she added, the city council could have had a “much richer conversation” about raising wages. At the time, the council opted for an 8% increase instead of 15%, citing concerns about the strain a higher tipped wage would place on restaurants.
“We were constrained from doing the right thing for Boulder by state legislation that didn’t engage Boulder the way that we can engage Boulder,” she said. “Local government can do the best job by engaging our community.”
