It will increase two more times, on Jan. 1 in 2019 and 2020, until it reaches $12 per hour. Tipped worker wages also increased from $5.29 in Jan. 2016 to $7.18 in 2018 and will top out in 2020 at $8.98. By comparison, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, just over $15,000 per year ($3,000 more than the 2017 federal poverty level for a one person household). It has not changed since July 2009.

In a 2016 study by the University of Denver (http://bit.ly/2CxQmA4), researchers estimated that since low-wage workers tend to spend whatever they make (there is nothing left to save), Colorado’s wage hike to $12 by 2020 will result in a $400 million injection into the state economy and an increase in living standards for 400,000 households, half of which are families.

Amendment 70 opponents cited a study by Portland State University economist Eric Fruits who estimated that a $12 per-hour minimum wage could result in 90,000 fewer jobs. Fruits’ critics point out that the last time Colorado raised its minimum wage, by 33 percent in January 2007, from $5.15 to $6.85 per hour, the Colorado economy added 71,200 jobs in the two years following the increase. A 2014 Congressional Budget Office report estimates that a $10.10 per hour federal minimum wage would lift 900,000 families above the federal poverty line and off public assistance programs.

The Colorado Center on Law & Policy’s 2017 State of Working Colorado (http://bit.ly/2lHE6Dd), released in December, concluded that economic recovery has not been equally shared or lasting, that for most workers wages are stagnant and underemployment remains a problem.

Though changes to the federal tax code lean heavily on corporations to drive job creation, wages and the economy, there is still a considerable role for legislators, business and not-for-profit leaders to play developing policies and practices to help people achieve economic self-sufficiency and community health.