Boulder Workers & Community Rally Against Wage Cuts (HB25-1208)

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BOULDER, CO – Yesterday, over one hundred community members, workers, and elected officials joined a rally in Boulder hosted by more than a dozen organizations to demand that state decision makers reject HB25-1208, a bill to lower the subminimum wage for workers who earn tips.

In addition to speeches from local business owners, impacted workers, Boulder City Councilmember Nicole Speer, and representatives from Boulder Area Labor Council and One Fair Wage, the following statements were made during the rally:

“I am here because we cannot let the more than 17,000 workers in Boulder county who keep our restaurants, bars, and hospitality industry running, bear the brunt of rising inflation.” Boulder City Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem, Lauren Folkerts

“We know that local economies are driven by consumer purchasing power. So if you are cutting wages, you are hurting the local economy, you are hurting small businesses, because you are reducing consumer spending. This is common sense. The only people who actually benefit from wage cuts like this are the big corporate chains who take money out of our communities. And guess what, that’s exactly who funds the Restaurant Association. When you look at where their money comes from – the lobbyists pushing for this bill – it’s not the mom and pop restaurants on Pearl Street, as much as they want to hold some of them up as props. It’s Olive Garden, it’s Red Lobster, it’s fast food chains. That’s who funds the Restaurant Association and that’s who is behind this bill.“ Wynn Howell, State Director for Working Families Power.

“People working in the community, contributing, they need to be able to afford to eat food and live in a place. So, let’s raise wages. This bill is terrible, it goes in the wrong direction. We are not going to make the economy strong by hurting the people who are working the hardest. That’s completely unacceptable.” Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann

“We’ve seen their playbook. They tried to do this in Arizona  with a smaller proposal that they sent to the voters. And despite dumping millions of dollars of money and misinformation, they tried passing this in a Republican state and they lost with 75% of the voters in Arizona rejecting it. So now they are trying to use their influence to push it through the legislature so we, the people, don’t get a vote.” Jade Kelly, President of CWA Local 7799

HB25-1208 was recently heard in the House Finance Committee, where after hours of testimony from impacted workers and community members, it was laid over for action only just after 1 AM on  March March 4th.

Organizations co-hosting the rally include Boulder Area Labor Council, Boulder DSA, Boulder Progressives, Colorado AFL-CIO, Colorado WINS, Colorado Young Democrats, CWA Local 7777, Local Progress Colorado, New Era Colorado Action Fund, One Fair Wage, ProgressNow Colorado, Women’s Lobby of Colorado, and Working Families Power.