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Resident asks Lafayette to consider raising city minimum wage, cites state law allowing local wage floors
Summary
A resident representing Together Colorado urged Lafayette to raise its minimum wage above $14.81, citing local cost-of-living differences and Colorado statutes that permit local minimum-wage laws.
At the March 18 meeting, Catherine Goldberg, who identified herself with the advocacy group Together Colorado, urged the Lafayette City Council to consider increasing the city’s minimum wage in 2026.
Goldberg said Lafayette’s 2024 minimum wage was $14.81 an hour and that a regional living-wage benchmark in Boulder County—cited in her remarks and a 2024 report—implied much higher earnings would be needed for self-sufficiency. She referenced research from the Economic Policy Institute and a Colorado Department of Labor and Employment study saying Denver’s minimum-wage increase did not produce higher unemployment and had no identifiable adverse sales-tax impacts aside from the COVID-19 period.
Goldberg also cited Colorado Revised Statutes 8-6-101 and 8-6-103, which she summarized as allowing local governments to enact minimum-wage laws and stating the minimum wage is intended to supply a minimum necessary cost of living. She asked council to recognize that raising the local minimum wage would not immediately reach a “self-sufficient wage” but said incremental increases (for example a multi-year 8% annual increase modeled on Boulder’s approach) could move Lafayette closer to a living wage and lower reliance on local safety-net services.
Goldberg spoke during public input and asked the council and local business community to weigh the evidence and consider a phased approach to increasing the minimum wage. Council did not take action on the request that evening.
