{"id":101598,"date":"2018-01-29T17:03:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T00:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-livable-wage-pathways-from-poverty-tied-to-age-living-costs-and-for-now-outside-support\/"},"modified":"2018-01-29T17:03:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T00:03:31","slug":"a-livable-wage-pathways-from-poverty-tied-to-age-living-costs-and-for-now-outside-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-livable-wage-pathways-from-poverty-tied-to-age-living-costs-and-for-now-outside-support\/","title":{"rendered":"A livable wage: Pathways from poverty tied to age, living costs and, for now, outside support"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Living
Living wage proponents protest for a raise in Colorado\u2019s minimum wage. (File photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Center on Law & Policy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

wage proponents protest for a raise in Colorado\u2019s minimum wage. (File photo) 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5821,5819],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-101598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-opinion","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101598"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=101598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}