Steve Bartolin knows what the Broadmoor resort will do to absorb the $980,000 he expects the voter-blessed boost to Colorado’s minimum wage to cost.
Cut back on hiring, said Bartolin, chief executive of Broadmoor Hotel Inc. All but 273 of the Colorado Springs resort’s employees – 1,850 in peak seasons – make more than the $6.85 an hour voters approved in Tuesday’s election.
But those 273, who are valet parkers, doormen and others whose tips can reach $30 an hour, Bartolin said, will get an increase of $1.70 an hour on Jan. 1, when Amendment 42 goes into effect.
“We are in a very competitive business,” he said. “If we could just raise the rates whenever we wanted to, we would be doing that. But when you start tinkering with this, it is going to cost jobs.”
Colorado voters approved the increase from the $5.15 hourly federal minimum now required in the state to $6.85, plus a boost in the minimum for workers who earn tips to $3.83 an hour from $2.13. The amendment also guarantees that the wage will rise with the cost of living.
The Broadmoor pumped $100,000 into an unsuccessful $1.6 million, business-backed campaign to stop the wage increase.
For many employers, the choice of how to react to the pay boost isn’t as clear as it is for Bartolin, said Bill Ray, spokesman for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
“We are going to have to watch and see what happens,” he said.
The measure drew heavy support in the Denver metro area, a Democratic stronghold, and was roundly rejected by voters on the rural Eastern Plains. Opponents had argued that the measure would discriminate against rural areas, where prices are lower than on the Front Range.
Democrats in Washington have promised to increase the federal minimum wage. Proposed legislation would raise the federal wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 over two years with no future automatic adjustments.
If the federal wage is higher than that passed in Colorado, the state’s low-wage workers would get another raise, said Josh Kirkpatrick, a lawyer with Littler Mendelson, an employment and labor-law firm.
In Colorado, the federal minimum would then be subject to the annual increases in Colorado’s new law.
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay the federal minimum or set a wage that is higher, he said. Tipped employees also could see an increase if Congress mandates one for them.
A coalition, including organized labor and some church groups, achieved victory with a grassroots campaign.
“We were outspent three to one. We reached out to and mobilized low-paid Coloradans, many of whom haven’t been involved in electoral politics before,” said Linda Meric, director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women.
Jacquelyn Connolly, 25, a waitress at Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House, a high-end restaurant downtown, makes $2.13 an hour, plus tips that can reach $20 an hour. The extra money she will pocket next year will help a little, she said, but not enough to get excited about.
Helen Kedzierski, 56, who worked to help pass the amendment, earns $5.15 an hour at a Colorado Springs art gallery. The cost-of-living increases included in the measure will make her life easier, she said.
“It does get a bit easier to purchase things when you adjust for inflation,” Connolly said. “Just getting a little bit more money helps.”
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
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