Update: The Denver City Council approved the measure on March 11.
Denver city officials Thursday announced the details of their plan to raise pay for city employees and contractors.
The proposed pay bump would bring the minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2021 for the city government and associated companies. The raises would start this summer with an increase to $13 an hour, followed by annual raises through 2021.
Nearly 1,900 city employees would get a raise under the proposal, along with thousands more workers employed by contractors and sub-contractors. About half of those city employees are currently making the state minimum wage of $11.10 an hour, and the vast majority are working for the city parks department.
The “living wage” for a single adult in Denver is about $14 an hour, according to the Living Wage Calculator, a project by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For an adult with a child — and a partner who works part time — it’s about $31 an hour.
The change is expected to cost the city about $5.7 million from 2019 to 2021. Some higher-earning employees also will get raises to keep the city’s pay scales in their current proportions.
In a news release, Mayor Michael Hancock said “wage stagnation is one of the most fundamental equity issues” facing workers in Denver and the United States. The statement also gave credit to the union groups Unite Here and SEIU Local 105 and Councilwoman at-large Robin Kniech, who worked on the proposal.
The proposal also covers contract workers who provide services to the city or who work on public property, such as Denver International Airport, including security workers, concession workers, caterers, maintenance workers and more. It exempts certain suppliers, small businesses, state and federally mandated programs and small contracts.
The proposal requires approval by the Denver City Council, which is scheduled to vote on it this April. Denver voters also are set this May to consider a similar minimum-wage measure for airport employees.