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Colorado Minimum Wage

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I know the Colorado minimum wage changed recently. What’s the 2008 rate?

The new rate, effective January 1, 2008, is $7.02 an hour. That’s an increase of 17 cents from the previous rate of $6.85 an hour, and was set by Colorado Minimum Wage Order 24. Colorado last changed its rate the previous year, effective January 1, 2007.

Colorado’s minimum wage law is limited to a narrow slice of the workforce. It applies only to the retail sector and to service industries, including commercial support, the health and medical business, and food and beverage industries.

Anyone working in those industries, according to Colorado law, are entitled to overtime if she or he works more than 12 hours in a single day or more than 40 hours in a week. The overtime rate is one an a half times the worker’s regular hourly pay, or “time-and-a-half.”

Federal law also stipulates overtime pay for any time over 40 hours a week, and the law covers most of the nation’s workers. In states that do not have a law covering overtime pay, workers are not entitled to overtime unless they’re covered by federal law.

Colorado, meanwhile, has passed a stringent law regarding undocumented workers. Colorado Statute 8-2-122, effective January 1 of 2007, mandates that all employers make copies of  the documents an employee used for his or her federal I-9 form. Those documents must be kept on file for the entire time the worker is employed. Employers must also complete what is called a “state affirmation” within about three weeks of hiring a worker. That affirmation says the employer has checked the worker’s documents and has not altered them.

Colorado joins Arizona, which has also passed strict new legislation regarding undocumented or illegal workers. Arizona’s law, which went into effect on January 1 of 2008, cracks down with sanctions on employers who willingly or knowingly hire undocumented, illegal workers. A business can be shut down. An owner may have his or her business license suspended for 10 days for a first violation. A second violation results in permanent loss of a business license. JH