The Colorado Division of Labor has just agreed to adopt a new Colorado minimum wage order, which is order number 23. The new order will be made effective as of April 1 of this year, which is just right around the corner. In fact, I believe that is this Monday, so Colorado employers, I hope you know what I am talking about here. You don’t? No worries, mon, as they say in Jamaica. I am here for you, always on the look out for new labor laws across the country, on both the state and the federal level, that you employers should be concerned or at least knowledgeable about.
This particular minimum wage order in Colorado will replace any previous emergency rules that the Division of Labor has been relying on, as well as minimum wage order number 22 in the state. These particular wage orders, by the way, decide how the division regulates and monitors how employers pay their employees wages, as well as the hours these employees work and the working conditions in which they are employed.
They are particular to employees in the service and retail businesses, in commercial support services (such as call center workers), in the food and beverage industries, as well as any employer and employee in the medical and health care industries.
The new Colorado minimum wage order in question number 23 is put in place by the Division of Labor in order to make sure they follow a recently passed amendment to the Colorado Constitution, called Section 15 of Article XVIII. The new constitutional amendment makes it so that after January 1 of this year, that employees who get either the state or the federal minimum wage must get at least $6.85 per hour, and that this rate must go up every year based on the rate of inflation.
