{"id":106534,"date":"2016-02-24T02:35:15","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T09:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ballot-proposal-filed-to-raise-colorado-minimum-wage\/"},"modified":"2016-02-24T02:35:15","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T09:35:15","slug":"ballot-proposal-filed-to-raise-colorado-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ballot-proposal-filed-to-raise-colorado-minimum-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballot proposal filed to raise Colorado minimum wage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Supporters
Supporters of a proposal to raise the minimum wage in Colorado last year gather outside the state Capitol. A new effort was launched Thursday after legislators killed a bill that would have allowed local governments to set wages in their counties.<\/span>Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 A ballot proposal to raise the minimum wage in Colorado was filed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The effort comes just a day after Republicans in the state Legislature blocked an effort to allow local governments to raise wages in their counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaising my wage just $2 an hour would help me afford rent, food, health care for my family, and maybe even save up for a more reliable car or for my daughter\u2019s college,\u201d Mary Collins, a Colorado home health care worker, said in a statement distributed by the campaign on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Colorado Families for a Fair Wage has proposed gradually increasing the state minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020.<\/p>\n

Business leaders, however, say the effort would squeeze certain entry-level workers out of the job market because employers would cut positions to adjust to new labor costs.<\/p>\n

But proponents of the initiative say the issue is about helping working families crawl out of poverty.<\/p>\n

Full-time workers make $8.31 an hour under the state\u2019s minimum wage, about $17,000 per year. Proponents say the wage has not kept up with cost-of-living increases.<\/p>\n

Supporters must collect 98,492 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot if their petition language is approved by the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaising the minimum wage makes good business sense,\u201d said Richard Correa, a proponent of the effort. \u201cWorkers will spend their needed minimum wage increases at the grocery, hardware store, auto repair and other businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supporters would need more than 98,000 signatures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[13,1634],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-wage-and-pension"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106534","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=106534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106534"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}