{"id":800943,"date":"2019-11-01T17:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T23:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=373940"},"modified":"2019-11-01T17:00:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T23:00:39","slug":"summit-county-asks-workers-employers-to-fill-out-minimum-wage-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-county-asks-workers-employers-to-fill-out-minimum-wage-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County asks workers, employers to fill out minimum wage survey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
Help wanted signs posted on businesses along Main Street in November 2018 in Breckenridge. <\/strong>
Summit Daily file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Summit County officials are urging residents and business owners to share their perspectives on living and working in the county as officials consider a potential raise in the minimum wage.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law allowing local governments to establish and enforce their own minimum wage requirements, acknowledging an already wide range of cost of living across the state.<\/p>\n

In Summit County, discussions began almost immediately among county and town officials wondering if a raise in minimum wage could help to address some of the county\u2019s livability concerns. But before any decisions are made, officials are hoping to put the question to employees and employers in the area to determine the best course of action.<\/p>\n

A countywide work group already has been formed to help lead the community discussion, including the county, towns, ski areas, school district and businesses, among other entities. But with strong opinions on both sides of the debate, officials are hoping to gather even more input.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we\u2019ve just been talking about background and talking about the legislation itself and what authorities it offers,\u201d County Manager Scott Vargo said. \u201cWe started to get into discussions around some of the data locally, and it became pretty apparent that we really needed to get more and better data than what we had available to us already. That lead to this survey the county has put together. \u2026 It will be interesting to see what the data shows and what information we can glean from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county recently put out three surveys online, two for employees in the county, in English and Spanish, and another for business owners and operators in the county.<\/p>\n

The work group already has made a number of public outreach efforts, including open houses. Julie Sutor, the county\u2019s director of communications, said the group has received a lot of feedback from business owners but is lacking the perspective of employees. The surveys, of which more than 800 already have been completed, are meant to provide a more well-rounded view of the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get a better understanding of what industries and what areas are paying what amounts,\u201d Vargo said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get a better read on if I work in a restaurant and I get tips, what do I typically get in tips on top of my hourly wage? What is my hourly wage? This goes for the retail sector, the ski industry, government, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vargo noted that the surveys also would dive into benefits like health care and housing subsidies, and will help to evaluate whether county and town officials are hearing the same things from employers and their employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, we\u2019ve heard from a number of workers who would like to see a wage increase and that cost of living is too high, housing costs are too high, and it\u2019s difficult to make a go of it here in Summit County,\u201d Vargo said. \u201cThe business owners have said the same thing but believe that a wage adjustment isn\u2019t the way to solve that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussions regarding a potential wage increase are still in their infancy, though the county is hoping to have some direction set by the end of this year, Vargo said.<\/p>\n

Any minimum wage increases wouldn\u2019t require voter approval meaning the county and towns could choose to move forward with any increases they see fit. It also means there could potentially be different minimum wages around the county, though the work group is meant to help avoid such inconsistencies.<\/p>\n

Vargo said the work group hasn\u2019t yet discussed what new wages potentially could come out of the decision, but he said there\u2019s a cap at a 15% annual increase. The state\u2019s minimum wage is set to increase to $12 in 2020, meaning the earliest and highest any wage increases could go in Summit County is to $13.80 starting in January 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to understand the perspectives of the work
\ngroup and the needs landscape locally in Summit County so we can figure out the
\nbest path forward,\u201d Sutor said. \u201cThe first step we\u2019re in now is collecting all
\nthat information and data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The surveys are open online at summitcountyco.gov\/minwage<\/a> through Sunday, Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Help wanted signs posted on businesses along Main Street in November 2018 in Breckenridge. Summit Daily file photo FRISCO \u2014 Summit County officials are urging residents and business owners to share their perspectives on living and working in the county as officials consider a potential raise in the minimum wage. Earlier this year, Gov. Jared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 21:22:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}