Colorado Minimum Wage Increases to $9.30 Per Hour and $6.28 Per Hour for Tipped Employees

As of January 1, 2017, Colorado employers must begin paying its employees a minimum of $9.30 per hour, or $6.28 per hour for tipped employees, an increase of $0.99 per hour.  In November 2016, Colorado passed Amendment 70, which will gradually increase the state’s minimum wage to $12.00 per hour by January 2020, and the first—and biggest—increase took effect January 1, 2017.[i]  (See Related Article.)  While Amendment 70 did not specifically address the tipped employee minimum wage, Colorado’s Minimum Wage Order Number 33 only permits up to $3.02 per hour in tip income to offset the standard minimum wage.[ii]  Accordingly, Colorado’s tipped minimum wage will also gradually increase each year until it reaches $8.98 per hour in January 2020.  Colorado employers must ensure to factor the increased minimum wage into all applicable overtime wages, and must also post the Colorado Minimum Wage Order Poster, which is available at the following link: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Minimum%20Wage%20Order%2033%20Poster.pdf

[i] The Colorado minimum wage will further increase as follows:

            January 1, 2018 – to $10.20 per hour ($7.18 per hour for tipped employees);

            January 1, 2019 – to $11.10 per hour ($8.08 per hour for tipped employees);  

            January 1, 2020 – to $12.00 per hour ($8.98 per hour for tipped employees).

[ii] See 7 CCR 1103-1, Colorado Minimum Wage Order Number 33, Department of Labor and Employment (available at: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/7%20CCR%201103-1%20Colorado%20Minimum%20Wage%20Order%20Number%2033_1.pdf) (last accessed Jan. 5, 2017).