Niwot farmers, business owners protest minimum wage increases
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NIWOT, Colo. — Standing between tractors, a group of business owners, farmers and Boulder County residents spoke from a makeshift podium to protest the county’s minimum wage increase at a rally in August.
In 2023, Boulder County Commissioners voted to increase the local minimum wage to $25 per hour by 2030. The current minimum wage for the county is $16.57 and is set to rise 8.6% each year until 2030, after which it will keep pace with inflation.
The Boulder County minimum wage only applies to unincorporated parts of the county, like Niwot, Gold Hill and Hygiene. Municipalities like Longmont and Boulder have a separate minimum wage.
Boulder County Commissioner Claire Levy hoped, “that if we laid out a path getting to $25 an hour, that would be a catalyst for other communities to join us.” Levy lives in Boulder.
But so far neither Longmont nor Boulder’s city council have opted to match the county’s increases. Boulder’s minimum wage is $15.57 and Longmont’s is $14.81. If unchanged, the minimum wage will be over $7 per hour higher in towns like Niwot than in Longmont by 2030.
“I could accept it more if it was the entire county,” said Alison Steele, owner of the Niwot Market, a family-run grocery store that employs 44 people. “It makes you feel like they're out to get you almost.”
Boulder City Council raised its minimum wage in November 2024, but the council voted five to four against raising the minimum as high as unincorporated parts of the county or Denver.
“It seemed like it would put too much stress on businesses at a time where businesses were just getting over the pandemic,” said Councilmember Tara Winer, who voted to increase the minimum wage 8% above the state minimum instead of 15% for 2025.
“I care very much that people can make a livable wage, but if businesses close, there goes your job,” said Winer.
Although Colorado used to set minimum wages at the state level, state legislators gave local governments the ability to set their own minimums in 2019, recognizing that cost of living can vary greatly across the state.
According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the living wage for a worker in Boulder County with no children is $26.18 per hour. MIT defines living wage as “what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.”
The figure rises to $51.68 per hour for single parents with one child.
“We can raise prices, but you can only raise prices so much before people say, ‘I can't support you anymore,’” said Steele.
Before adopting the minimum wage ordinance, county commissioners solicited feedback from stakeholders through an online survey and town hall. Of 355 total survey responses, just 14 respondents lived in unincorporated parts of the county.
Local farmer Michael Moss said he was “blindsided” by the ordinance that passed in 2023.
“When this ordinance passed, public discourse was very short, and it happened in August and September, our busiest months as farmers. We didn't even know about it until the ordinance passed,” said Moss.
Every summer, Moss hires 15 seasonal employees at his business, Kilt Farm, located north of Niwot along the diagonal highway. Moss grows up to 80 different varieties of vegetables per season, which he sells to local grocery stores and community supported agriculture customers.
Moss worries that wage increases will drive customers away from local food if prices get too expensive.
“We’re price takers,” said Moss. “We all look at California and other counties in the state and other countries that bring food into Colorado as our true competitors.”
County commissioners did not hear from farmers before approving the minimum wage increase, said Levy.
Since then, Levy said she’s spoken with farmers about the challenges they face.
“They have laid out for me their costs of doing business and the margin that they have. At the end of the day, I am concerned about that,” said Levy.
Levy said she hasn’t heard from workers who have received a raise because of the minimum wage.
Steele and other Niwot business owners have written letters, attended weekly county commissioner meetings and even hired a lobbyist, but she said the commissioners “just don’t seem to be responding.”
“What we're trying to do is just build awareness and try to get the commissioners to halt the minimum wage so there can be a more universal approach,” said Steele.
Any changes to the county’s minimum wage ordinance must be introduced by one of the county commissioners. After an initial reading, public comment period, second reading and second public comment period, commissioners can vote on the issue. Any change to a wage ordinance would require a majority of two of three commissioners.
The earliest a new ordinance would take effect is January 1, 2026.
“I think in retrospect, [2030] was probably too far in the future to be locking in decisions about how much the wage would be,” said Levy, who voted in favor of the increase in 2023, alongside fellow commissioners, Ashley Stolzmann and Marta Loachamin.
“Speaking only for myself, because there are three of us, I think it would probably be best if Boulder County were on the same scale as the city of Boulder.”
The city of Boulder’s minimum wage will increase to $18.17 per hour in 2027, after which it will increase in relation to the consumer price index, which measures inflation.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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