Posted by
L Gravel on Saturday, June 07, 2008 4:35:55 PM
The people of Colorado passed an amendment to their Constitution in 2006 to raise the minimum wage to $6.85 and adjust it annually for inflation. It currently stands at
$7.02. Predictably, most teenagers I know are still looking unsuccessfully for work this summer. And I've noticed many restaurants have closed (off the top of my head, I can think of two steak places, a pizza place, and a barbecue place). There's also a local drugstore chain that's gone down. All these buildings now sit empty.
Granted, gas prices are certainly shifting consumption from restaurants and retail. But that means the market wage for teen labor has dropped below $7.02. So a teenager willing to do something productive with his time for $6 can just go pound sand.
Thanks, Coloradans, for
doing what's fair and making our state a better place.