DENVER (AP) - Colorado's minimum wage will drop slightly in the new year - the first decrease in any state's minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938.
Colorado's wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That's because Colorado is one of 10 states that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. The goal is to protect low-wage workers from having unchanged paychecks as the cost of living goes up
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This is such a slight decrease that I think it is unlikely to make any difference at all as far as employment goes. What we really need is a minimum wage of zero. Then people can negotiate their pay truly based upon what they are worth while performing the tasks they are employed to do. Most people are probably already worth more than $7.25 an hour, and this is evidenced by the fact that most people currently earn more than that which means that their employers believe they are worth more than what is required by law to pay. However, there are some jobs that employers would like to have someone do, but they do not feel like it is worth $7.25 an hour. I expect that many businesses would like to have door greeters like they have at Wal-Mart, but not being as big or as busy as a Wal-Mart simply cannot justify the $7.25 an hour expense. At the same time I expect there are some unemployed people or people with a disability that prevents them from being able to do certain types of jobs who would love to do something like be a door greeter for $5.00 an hour or some wage lower than the minimum.
If you have ever known a teenager who is having a terrible time finding a part time job, it is likely to be due to the minimum wage. A teenager with no work experience, no training in any sort of skill, and no track record proving they are hard working and reliable employees is a risk for an employer to take the employer also knows that the teen will need to be trained in every single aspect of the job and many employers simply will determine that the teen is not worth the minimum wage and will wait for a more experience proven employee to come along.
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