Longmont City Council heard from multiple stakeholders about the possibility of implementing a local minimum wage on Tuesday.
The discussion was the first brought to council and no decisions were made, but a regional working group will continue exploring the option.
Longmont is a member of the Boulder County Consortium of Cities, of which some members are interested in collaborating to study, engage and potentially enact a regional minimum wage across participating jurisdictions in Boulder County. The work group includes representatives from Boulder County, Boulder, Louisville and Longmont.
Per a 2019 Colorado law, municipalities can set their own minimum wage for employees in their city within certain requirements. The current minimum wage in Colorado and therefore Longmont, which does not currently have a local minimum wage, is $13.65.
Boulder City Councilmember Lauren Folkerts, a representative for the Consortium of Cities, explained the working group’s efforts up to this point. The group is facilitating collaboration between cities and stakeholders to see what a minimum wage increase might look like, emphasizing collaboration as any community raising the minimum wage would impact other communities.
Denver is the only Colorado community that has implemented a regional minimum wage since the state passed the law, with the wage set at $17.29 an hour this year.
Folkerts noted Boulder City Council unanimously supported exploring this possibility. She said ideally the involved communities would come to a number they all agree on and then pass individually, but individual municipalities would be able to make their own decisions.
A target wage has not been identified at this time and there have been limited check-ins with stakeholders, but a full community engagement effort will be coming.
Council also heard from representatives of the Boulder Area Labor Council, an advocacy group for raising the minimum wage to a living wage. They cited a self-sufficiency proposal based on numbers from the Colorado Center for Law and Policy, which would include raising the minimum wage to $15.41 in 2024 and increasing by 12.9% each year until 2028 to achieve a target minimum wage of $25 an hour.
Scott Cook, chief executive officer of the Longmont Chamber of Commerce, added a business perspective to the conversation. He spoke about the strain local businesses are feeling in the current economic climate and asked that they be included in conversations about raising the minimum wage.
All council members agreed to consider exploring a possible minimum wage increase. Several emphasized the importance of engaging business stakeholders.
The timeline for any minimum wage increase coincides with the new year, as regional minimum wage increases can only be implemented on Jan. 1 of any year.
