Colorado Workers Making Minimum Wage Look Forward To Pay Bump

DENVER (CBS4) - Thousands of Colorado workers are getting ready to make more money -- about an extra $1 per hour. The goal is to get minimum wage up to $12 per hour by 2020.

Inside Zoe Ma Ma, employees won't be seeing a pay increase in the new year. That's because they're already paid more than $10 an hour.

"I kind of built it into the business model, so for me, I feel like it hasn't hurt us," said Zoe Ma Ma owner Edwin Zoe.

Zoe was a leading voice for Amendment 70 which passed in November starting a ladder for the minimum wage.

"Low-income families have been struggling for quite some time," Zoe said. "To ask someone to make a commitment to work … full time, which is 40 hours a week and only take home $300 a week and expect them to live off that in a dignified way without government assistance; to me that's just wrong."

On Jan. 1 the minimum wage will go up 99 cents to $9.30 an hour.

"That's going to be a little help … a little more money for me," Aaron Rocha told CBS4's Jeff Todd while he was on break from one of his two jobs. "At the airport I actually push people. I push wheelchairs and I take them where they have to be … I put in 40 hours a week over there."

He says the increase is vital to make ends meet.

"I have to help my parents; I kind of need two jobs to be able to help them pay some bills," Rocha said.

The minimum wage will be going up by about $1 every Jan. 1 until 2020. But Amendment 70 also says there isn't a cap, so it will be reassessed based on economic factors after 2020.