DENVER – The campaign to increase the minimum wage to $12 in Colorado reportedly didn’t even pay many of their own campaign workers that amount to get the measure on the ballot. According to a circulator and wage report filed with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office by the campaign, 24 of the workers out collecting signatures to get the measure on the ballot were paid less than the $12 per hour proponents are attempting to codify into the Colorado constitution. The report was obtained Keep Colorado Working, the opposition campaign, in an open records request.

The proponents of increasing the minimum wage, Colorado Families for a Fair Wage, funded largely with union money, hired Fieldworks, a signature gathering firm, to collect the necessary signatures for ballot access. Colorado requires a report detailing hours and pay of signature gatherers be filed with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. 

“The irony of paying someone less than $12 an hour to stand on a street corner to mandate a minimum wage increase to that amount is dripping off this story,” said Kelly Maher, executive director of Compass Colorado. “Unions are trying to force small businesses already operating on razor thin margins to increase pay just so they can line their pockets, and they aren’t even paying their own workers that. The hypocrisy is palpable.” 

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