{"id":42117,"date":"2022-02-18T20:20:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T03:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-appeals-court-sides-with-rafting-outfitters-on-minimum-wage\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:05:14","slug":"federal-appeals-court-sides-with-rafting-outfitters-on-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-appeals-court-sides-with-rafting-outfitters-on-minimum-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal appeals court sides with rafting outfitters on minimum wage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rafters
Rafters paddle through rapids on the Arkansas River in Big Horn Sheep Canyon near Cotopaxi, on June 12, 2019. (Mike Sweeney\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Rafting companies do not have to comply with a presidential order to pay guides at least $15 an hour, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.<\/p>\n

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals gave Duke Bradford, the owner of Chaffee County\u2019s Arkansas Valley Adventure and the Colorado River Outfitters Association, a reprieve in their lawsuit to block President Joe Biden\u2019s executive order requiring federal government contractors to pay workers at least $15 an hour plus overtime.<\/p>\n

The appeals court granted an injunction the rafting outfitters were seeking, which had been denied by a federal judge last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a win. It\u2019s an opportunity to be heard,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cThis is a breather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradford and the association sued the federal government in December, arguing that the Biden administration\u2019s wage spike for rafting guides who operate on federal land would hinder outfitters from offering affordable overnight trips. They argued that Biden overstepped his authority with an executive order, instead of routing the wage increase through Congress. They also argued that rafting, hunting, hiking and other outfitters who operate under agreements with federal land managers are not contractors but permit holders.<\/p>\n

\"Rafters
Rafters navigate the whitewater rapids on the Arkansas River in this photo taken near Salida in 2003. Rafting companies do not have to comply with a presidential order to pay guides at least $15 an hour, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. (AP Photo\/Ed Andrieski, File)<\/span>onset<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In a short ruling, U.S. Circuit Judge Gregory Phillips and Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Kelly gave the rafting outfitters a temporary injunction while they pursue an appeal of the federal court\u2019s January decision.<\/p>\n

Bradford expects the ruling means outfitters can move forward as planned for the upcoming summer season. While he does not necessarily anchor his business on overnight trips, he said the lawsuit represents outfitters across the country who regularly bring guests into the backcountry for extended trips.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gives hunting guides, hiking guides, horseback guides a chance to better understand what\u2019s going on,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cAnyone who is doing long trips in the backcountry, they are really all concerned with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado outfitters sued Biden administration over a $15 per hour rule for federal contractors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42117","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=42117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85226,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42117\/revisions\/85226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42117"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}