How Colorado’s new minimum wage affects Pueblo businesses

PUBELO — Small businesses in Colorado are seeing rising costs for supplies, insurance, rent and labor, and some stores are having to make difficult decisions.

This year, for example, workers in Colorado making the minimum wage will now receive $14.81. That’s 39 cents more per hour than last year.

The rising minimum wage across the state is impacting some businesses in Pueblo. Brian Redmond is no stranger to running a business or two. He has been running two grocery stores in Pueblo for a year. One of them is Steel City Nutrition on South Union Avenue.

“Payroll is our biggest cost anyway. “Knowing it would go up, it would have made it even more difficult for us,” Redmond said.

He said he decided to sell his other store for several reasons, but one of them was that it cost too much to pay his five employees.

Eleanor Sheahan

“Even without the increase, this was our biggest expense as a company,” Redmond said.

Starting in 2025, Colorado’s minimum wage increased to $14.81 per hour.

“It’s a pretty high minimum wage. Since I’m from Wisconsin, that’s about double the minimum wage there,” Redmond said.

In 2006, Colorado voters passed an amendment to the state constitution that provided for an annual adjustment of the minimum wage up or down based on inflation.

“I think just the spending and cost of living in Colorado here is typically a little bit higher than … the national average itself,” Redmond said.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Colorado’s is more than twice as high.

To save money, Redmond said he and his fiancée are the only employees at Steel City Nutrition because the additional staff isn’t worth the cost.

“It definitely makes it harder, we just have to adapt and the nature of running your own business is that it’s malleable,” Redmond said.

Whether they’re sick, on vacation or getting married next week, Redmond said they have to close the store.

“We’re planning on probably just keeping the store closed for those few days because it’s difficult for us to have someone full-time while we work here too, and then just have them stop by once a month whenever we’re on vacation or.” Having travel or something like that,” Redmond said.

Redmond says Steel City Nutrition focuses on improving people’s health, gaining more energy and improving fitness. He said he understands how raising the minimum wage could help workers, but said it poses a challenge for local businesses.

“There’s a whole other side of things beyond just paying the minimum wage that takes into account inflation, business expenses and taxes and other things like that… it’s all part of it too,” Redmond said.

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