Residents and small-business owners urge Boulder County to pause proposed unincorporated minimum-wage increase

BOULDER, Colo. — At a Sept. 4 public comment session, residents and business owners urged the Boulder County Board of County Commissioners to pause or reconsider a plan that would raise the minimum wage for the county’s unincorporated areas, saying the change would harm small towns, farms and teen employment. The speakers said the county’s schedule for minimum-wage escalation treats a legal minimum as a living wage and that applying a higher wage only in unincorporated parts of the county creates an uneven playing field with neighboring municipalities and chains. “The county is equating minimum wage with living wage,” said a public commenter who opened the session, citing a living-wage estimate of about $26 an hour and roughly $54,000 per year. The speaker warned that using minimum-wage policy to achieve a living wage could drive up costs and inflation. “Many of them have been coming to see us for more than 25 years,”…