Since before the pandemic, a group of Denver business leaders have been working on a plan to get more of their employees above a $45,000 annual wage. There was a good reason for that: A livable wage and promotion potential could help retain workers in a tight labor market. It was also an effort to […]
Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News, Technology
What’s Working: Denver business leaders say $45,000 is the new “scrape-by” wage
If you’ve been wondering what Denver’s business leaders think about work, jobs and unemployment, a pretty large source of influence had already taken a stand. “An economy that doesn’t work for all Coloradans doesn’t work for us,” Prosper CO says on its website. The organization was started as a committee two years ago by the […]
Posted inBusiness, News
What’s Working: Spanish-speaking virtual agents, extra $300 weeks approved and a new small business fund
Colorado is on track to start paying an extra $300 a week in mid-September to anyone eligible for unemployment benefits — including gig workers — between July 26 and Aug. 15. Well, not quite everyone. Excluded are folks who earned $99 or less during that period (sorry to the reader who wrote in about missing […]
Posted inCOVID, News, Politics and Government
Here’s the nuance behind Colorado Democrats’ effort to eliminate 9 tax breaks, pump $1.6 billion into state coffers
To generate money for the coronavirus-depleted state budget, Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado want to slash or change nine tax breaks to generate $1.6 billion in revenue over the next four years. House Bill 1420, introduced Monday with just days left in the 2020 lawmaking term, would revoke tax breaks included in the federal stimulus […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s unemployment fund could run out of money next month. Here’s what that means for businesses.
By the time Colorado does its annual June checkup of the special fund used to pay unemployed workers, the account will likely be empty, and possibly in the red. Out-of-work Coloradans should be OK, though. They’ll still get unemployment pay because the state, as it’s done in the past, will borrow money from the federal […]
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s consumer protection laws are getting much tougher — and that could help with the state’s opioid lawsuit
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser campaigned on a platform of protecting the state’s consumers from bad-acting businesses. But when he took office in January, he quickly believed that the state’s laws provided him with an arsenal of spitballs to battle a problem that really needed a cannonball-sized solution. “I took office and very quickly there […]