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Minimum-wage proposal most popular ballot item

David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 20, 2006 at midnight

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A proposal to increase the minimum wage in Colorado and embed future increases in the state constitution is the most popular item on the ballot at this point in the campaign.

Of likely voters quizzed in a Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 poll, 74 percent said they will "definitely" or "probably" support Amendment 42. The "definitely" camp includes 52 percent of voters.

Just 20 percent of voters are on the no side, with 13 percent of respondents saying they "definitely" will vote against the measure.

The support crosses party lines, with 61 percent of the supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez in favor of Amendment 42. Backers of Democratic candidate Bill Ritter are 85 percent in support of the wage hike.

"At first blush, voters' initial reaction is bordering on love," said Lori Weigel, of pollster Public Opinion Strategies. "It's past the 'like' stage."

Amendment 42 would increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.85, the first increase since the U.S. Congress made the change in 1997.

The minimum for restaurant servers and others who regularly receive tips would increase from $2.13 to $3.83. The minimum wage would then increase each year in an amount equal to the Denver-Boulder Consumer Price Index.

Proponents, including the AFL-CIO and other unions and community groups, say the increase is overdue and will help raise some households out of poverty.

Business groups, including the Colorado Restaurant Association and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, oppose the ballot measure.

They're seizing on the built-in inflation factor, saying that the state constitution is the wrong place for the measure.

Ralph Perez, of Castle Rock, is a registered Republican who plans to vote for Beauprez, primarily for "moral issues."

After 25 years as a union construction worker, mostly in California, he parts with the candidate on this economic issue.

"Usually, when somebody's working at minimum wage, they're just starting out or have had a bad run of luck," Perez said. "They contribute to the economy, and people are struggling when they're down at the bottom. So it should be as high as is reasonable."

The poll question asked by Public Opinion Strategies mirrored the ballot title of Amendment 42, including references to the constitution and the automatic increases.

The Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 poll findings are based on statewide telephone interviews of 500 registered voters who said they are likely to vote in November.

It was conducted Sept. 10 through Sept. 12 by Weigel, of Public Opinion Strategies, a firm that generally conducts polls for Republican candidates.

David Kenney, of The Kenney Group, a firm that typically works with Democratic candidates, consulted on the questionnaire and the analysis.

The sample has a margin of error of 4.38 percentage points.

David Milstead is finance editor of the Rocky Mountain News. He can be reached at or 303-954-2648.