BOULDER, Colo. — The discussion of minimum wage will be back on the table for Boulder County Tuesday afternoon.
The county is hosting a public hearing to receive input for 2026 on how they handle minimum wage for unincorporated areas in Boulder County.
The state gave power at the local level to set minimum wage. Boulder County commissioners unanimously approved the Local Minimum Wage ordinance in 2023, and it went into effect in January 2024.
The minimum wage in Boulder County was raised to $16.57 an hour in January 2025. Next year, it is set to increase to $17.99 an hour. The minimum wage will gradually increase to $25 an hour in 2030.
Denver7 spoke with the owners of Niwot Market and Kilt Farm. Both are located in the unincorporated area of Niwot in Boulder County.
“We realized it was going to be a death knell for our farms,” Owner of Kilt Farm and the President of the Community Farmers Alliance (COFA) Michael Moss said.
Moss pointed out that the main concern from small business owners surrounds how the $25 an hour minimum wage in 2030.
“$25 an hour minimum wage for organizations that need a lot of labor in the fields is not going to work for farmers,” Moss said. “We're not just competing against farmers, say, in the next city over we compete on a national and international scale."
Moss added that he’s not asking county commissioners to lower the minimum wage, rather “asking them to really lower the trajectory of these increases, which is just way out of line with what farmers can afford and what really people will pay for food.”
“Our goal is to maintain the minimum wage to a high point of 2030, by $19 about $19 an hour, but still continue to increase by the cost-of-living index,” Moss explained.
Alison and Seth Steele, siblings who own the Niwot Market, shared a similar sentiment.
“We want people to be taken care of," Seth Steele said. "Eventually, when an entry level position is, you know, at $18 an hour, it's going to affect people who've been here a long time, too, who need a raise.”
“We're going to be a lot tighter on how many hours we give," Alison Steele added. "I think businesses will just try to come up with ways to keep their cost of labor down,” she explained.
As a business owner, looking to the future of a $25 minimum wage makes Alison feel scared.
“Our payroll will go up by 30% and it's already tough,” Alison Steele said. “The world, it's already a tough time. The economy is crazy. The cost of food is insane all over and so it's just, 'How can you survive? How can we raise prices and still have people support us?'”
But for Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann, she believes raising the minimum wage is necessary for people to have the means to survive.
“$16.57 does not cut it if you're trying to have a life here in the Denver Metro area,” Stolzmann said. “We're still hearing from workers that that's far too low, people who are losing their access to health care, people who are losing their food benefits from the federal government, from the cuts that are being seen, they're not able to afford everyday life.”
She noted there is a Business Assistance Program that offers cash to businesses that are paying minimum wage.
“Because of the transparency that we've shown to show people what the escalation will be, they're really having to plan ahead, which is a good thing, because then we can work on what the business assistance needs to be, what the tax rates need to be what the types of things we need to do to support the economy overall and still help the workers,” Stolzmann said.
Alison and Seth Steele would like to see the minimum wage paused where it’s at right now at $16.57 an hour, while the county works on a regional approach that works for everyone.
“Our whole goal is just that they pause it and realize that, you know, it really is going to take a toll on these small businesses, and I'm not sure it's actually going to fix the problem,” Alison Steele said.
Unincorporated communities include Allenspark, Coal Creek Canyon, Eldora, Eldorado Springs, Gold Hill, parts of Gunbarrel, Hygiene, and Niwot, according to Boulder County’s website.
The county’s local minimum wage applies to these areas.
Incorporated areas include Boulder, Erie, Jamestown, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, Lyons, Nederland, Superior, and Ward.
The state’s minimum wage applies to these areas.
The public hearing Tuesday is for county commissioners to gather feedback on how the county moves forward.
Stolzmann said she expects to hear from a lot of people against the higher minimum wage.
The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m at the Boudler County Commissioners' office, or you can join virtually through the zoom link posted to the county's website.
