COLORADO: House Bill 1208: Band-aid for a gushing minimum wage wound.

Colorado, like most states, has a “tip offset” for the minimum wage for business with employees who rely on tips for a substantial portion of their wages. In Colorado, that tip credit is $3.02, and has not kept pace with the increase in the state minimum wage since 2006. The net result has been disproportionate labor costs, even as tips also rise along with menu charges.

House Bill 25-1208 would adjust the minimum wage that restaurants would have to pay tipped employees, but only in cities whose minimum wages exceed the state minimum. So if a jurisdiction had a minimum wage that was $4.00 above the state, the tip credit would be $7.02. Those localities could then adjust the tip credit up or down by as much as 50 cents a year.

While the desire to ease the burden of excessive operating costs for restaurants is laudable, this bill ends up doing so on the backs of wait staff, addresses effects rather than causes, picks favorites, and ignores any number of other factors contributing to those increasing costs.

The one fix nanny-staters will never attempt is repealing the law that screwed things up in the first place.