Adams County Minimum Wage Study
Movement Economics was contracted by Adams County, Colorado to conduct a study of the economic impacts of a local minimum wage policy. The final report describing the study results and methods can be found here on the Adams County website. In this report, we first provide an overview of the local workforce and economy, including a comprehensive description of characteristics and trends of local workers, wages, employers, and the economy. Next, we apply a nationally recognized model developed by the UC Berkeley Center for Wage and Employment Dynamics (CWED) and the UC Berkeley Labor Center that has been used to produce prospective studies of the impacts of minimum wage policies, living wage policies, and industry wage standards for local and state governments across the country. Using this model, we estimate the likely impact of several minimum wage policy alternatives on worker earnings, employer operating costs, consumer prices, employment, the size of the local economy, and government tax revenues. Finally, we summarize best practices for enforcement of local minimum wage policies to maximize the effectiveness of an adopted minimum wage policy, based on a review of relevant literature and interviews with enforcement experts and field practitioners.
Our findings suggest that raising the minimum wage in Adams County to either 90 or 100 percent of the Denver minimum wage would increase earnings for a large group of workers, while having minimal effects on employment, the size of the local economy, and tax revenues. If all jurisdictions within the County adopted a minimum wage policy simultaneously, at least six times as many workers would experience an increase in their earnings compared to a policy that would only cover the unincorporated areas of Adams County. A countywide minimum wage level would also have a more positive, but still small, impact on GDP and tax revenues. Our findings are consistent with a large body of research on the impacts of local minimum wage policies, as well as the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s research on the impacts of the Denver minimum wage.
