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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Minimum Wage Workers in CO Get Big Boost This Week

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Tuesday, January 2, 2007   


The wallets of working families in several states will be a tad thicker this week. Voters around the country voted to raise the minimum wage for the first time in years. Here in Colorado, workers got a $1.70 bump to $6.85 per hour starting January 1. Bill Vandenberg with the Colorado Progressive Coalition says the higher wage is a good start.

"But we believe there's certainly a long way to go to affording housing, health care, child care, transportation and rent and all those things as well."

According to Vandenberg, a few possible next steps could include raising the federal minimum wage and making the state Earned Income Tax Credit permanent for Colorado's low-wage workers.

"That would impact 250,000 of the lowest-paid, lowest-wage Coloradans, and it is seen as the most effective anti-poverty program in the country."

Vandenberg notes that 73,000 minimum-wage earners in Colorado received the immediate raise on Monday. The wage is indexed to rise with inflation by a few cents every January.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage say it hurts small businesses like restaurants. Vandenberg points to a new study projecting strong growth in Colorado's restaurant industry as evidence that higher wages aren't bad for the bottom line.


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