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Bill would reduce tipped workers’ earnings

THREAT TO MINIMUM WAGE IN DENVER

the Auditor at your service

Timothy M. O’Brien, CPA, Auditor of Denver

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In 2020, Denver became the first local government in Colorado to implement its own minimum wage. City Council based it on Denver’s high cost of living, and because the minimum wage increases annually, our city’s lowest-wage workers don’t get left behind as inflation rises.

Wages have risen, business has grown, and our local economy outperforms other cities and counties. Bar and restaurant workers have seen their average weekly earnings increase from $503 in 2019 to $756 in 2024. These facts are inspiring and significant, especially because the restaurant industry is allowed to pay tipped workers a sub-minimum wage that is $3.02 less than the Denver minimum wage. While other employers pay $18.81 per hour in 2025, bars and restaurants get to pay only $15.79.

Although the restaurant industry claims businesses are closing in droves, the data doesn’t support it. In 2019 there were 2,114 food and drink service establishments in Denver; by 2024, even after enduring the worst pandemic stages, there were 2,343. Denver’s restaurant scene has grown faster than the United States as a whole.

My office recovers $500,000 for workers to start the year Auditor's Office Works for You

Tipped Workers Affected

A proposal by Denver Representatives Steven Woodrow and Alex Valdez and Boulder Senator Judy Amabile threatens this progress. HB25-1208 would gut Denver’s tipped minimum wage and increase economic insecurity. This law would make it harder for workers to pay rent, and all the other necessities of life.

This bill would force City Council to pass a new law cutting the tipped minimum wage for food and beverage workers from $15.79 to $11.79 per hour. A full-time employee will earn $160 less per week, $640 less per month, and $8,320 less per year.

Very few people could absorb an $8,320 pay cut, especially as the cost of living increases in Denver. This is especially true in the restaurant industry, where most people do not earn much. In May 2023 average annual earnings in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area were modest for bartenders ($39,350), fast food and counter workers ($35,260), and waiters and waitresses ($39,170).

Stolen wages

These workers also struggle to receive the money they earned. Minimum wage violations are common in the restaurant industry. According to research I commissioned, from 2007 to 2022, between 12.7% and 16.3% of workers in this industry suffered minimum wage violations. Last year alone, my office recovered almost $200,000 for wage theft in this industry.

Food and beverage workers deserve a wage that allows them to support themselves and their families.

This law would make the America Dream more unattainable than ever for them. It would gut the minimum wage for tens of thousands of workers and override City Council’s careful process. At a time when many are afraid of what the future holds, leaders should be working to improve peoples’ lives, not slash wages and reject progress.