The City of Boulder has enacted its own local minimum wage ordinance, which took effect January 1, 2025, setting the city’s minimum wage at $15.57 per hour. The new law adds another challenge to multi-jurisdiction compliance for employers as the city’s minimum wage is higher than the State of Colorado’s, which increased to $14.81 per hour on January 1, 2025.

Since 2020, Colorado law has allowed local governments to enact their own minimum wages. As a result, communities across Colorado began exploring an increase to their local minimum wage, but to date, only three communities have adopted such laws – Denver, Edgewater, and unincorporated Boulder County.

Since the City of Boulder is located within Boulder County, employers with operations in both the city and the county will need to navigate a situation where employees performing similar work may be subject to different wage rates depending on their specific location on any given day. For comparison, effective January 1, 2025, unincorporated Boulder County – including Niwot, Eldorado Springs, Eldora, Allenspark, Gold Hill, Hygiene, Coal Creek Canyon, and those parts of Gunbarrel that are not part of the City of Boulder – has set its minimum wage at $16.57 per hour or $13.55 per hour with tip credit. The county’s wage will increase by a fixed amount each year until it reaches $25.00 per hour in 2030, before being indexed to inflation thereafter. This dynamic creates an added layer of complexity for employers, who must carefully track employee assignments across these differing localities to ensure compliance with local wage laws.  

The City of Boulder’s ordinance applies to employers with one or more “covered” employees, which are defined under the ordinance as individuals performing, or expected to perform, four or more hours of work for an employer in any given week within the City of Boulder. The ordinance defines “work” as “any services performed physically within the geographic boundaries of the City of Boulder on behalf of or for the benefit of an employer whether on an hourly, piecework, commission, time, task, or other basis.” Excluded from the law are individuals traveling through Boulder’s jurisdiction with no employment-related or commercial stops, individuals providing volunteer services that are uncompensated except for reimbursement for expenses such as meals, parking, or transportation, and independent contractors. Interestingly, the ordinance states that independent contractors are defined by federal – not state – law.

The ordinance establishes pre-set rates for 2025 through 2027.

Beginning in 2028, and each subsequent calendar year, the minimum wage will be set by the city council based on increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Area.

Employers may claim a tip credit of up to $3.02 per hour under the ordinance for tips regularly and actually received by food and beverage workers. The ordinance defines a food and beverage worker as “a worker for any business that prepares and offers for sale food or beverages for consumption either on or off an employer’s physical premises.”

The ordinance requires employers to post a City of Boulder Minimum Wage Notice with letters no less than one inch high in a prominent place that is easily accessible to all employees in English and Spanish. If a physical notice is not feasible, employers must provide the notice on an individual basis, in an employee’s primary language, and in paper or electronic form that is reasonably conspicuous and accessible. Although the ordinance does not expressly require employers to use a city-created notice, it does specify that any notice an employer does use must include how to contact the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (Department) to file a complaint. Boulder City Council has not specified whether or when the city might publish its poster as of the date of this article.

Additionally, employers must keep payroll records that demonstrate compliance with the ordinance for at least three years. Employees alleging a violation of the ordinance may file or pursue a complaint with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment within two years of the alleged violation, or within three years if the complaint alleges an employer willfully violated the ordinance. Notably, a violation of the ordinance is considered sufficient cause to suspend or revoke a city business license under Boulder’s city code.

Employers with Colorado operations might now have an additional box they need to check when reviewing their Centennial State compliance obligations. For businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions – whether they have locations in a single state, multiple states, or nationwide – the City of Boulder ordinance is a reminder that ensuring compliance companywide requires knowing about, and complying with, applicable laws enacted at all levels of government.

The ordinance is codified in a new chapter, Chapter 12-6, of the Boulder, Colorado Revised Code.