Denver city officials announced the minimum wage is rising 55 cents, up to $19.84/hour beginning in January 2027. The wage hike will also apply to tipped workers, whose wages will increase to $16.82/hour.
The announcement follows a slew of reports showing that local restaurants have struggled under the skyrocketing tipped wage. Government data analyzed by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) shows that, after the wage hike, Denver’s restaurant industry saw an employment loss of roughly triple the rate of restaurant job losses statewide.
Rebekah Paxton, research director at EPI, had this to say about Denver’s new wage law:
“Denver restaurants are already struggling under the city’s recent wage hikes, and the latest increase ignores the consequences already playing out. Government data shows years of steep minimum wage increases have cost the city thousands of restaurant jobs. A nearly $20 minimum wage won’t make Denver more affordable when employers are forced to cut hours, raise prices, or close their doors.”
Background:
- Denver’s minimum wage ordinance requires the citywide wage to increase annually based on the Consumer Price Index, meaning the wage floor is automatically adjusted rather than requiring a new vote for each increase.
- A 2019 law gave Colorado cities the power to set their own minimum wages. Denver is one of the main Colorado cities that still maintains a higher minimum wage.
- The city’s restaurant industry is already facing significant cost pressures. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics quarterly data shows Denver County experienced a third-straight year of job losses, amounting to more than 2,200 lost restaurant jobs since its post-Covid peak in 2022.
- According to BLS, “restaurant and other eating places” employment totaled 19,353 jobs in Denver County in December 2025, compared to 21,104 restaurant jobs in December 2022.
- This decline represents a 5.9% job loss for Denver’s restaurant industry, more than triple the rate of declines felt statewide (where restaurant jobs went from 216,414 in December 2022 to 212,350 in December 2025, a 1.9% loss).
- The County’s restaurants have not been able to recover since COVID, and are now falling further behind.
- Axios Denver previously reported the state’s restaurants are an “industry in crisis.” The outlet reported 82% of Colorado’s shuttered restaurants were in Denver, and blamed city and state tipped wage hikes as “a major pain point.”
- An EPI survey of 166 American economists found 90% of respondents oppose wage mandates as high as Denver’s, with 89% saying it will cost jobs and 80% saying it will worsen the cost of living.
- A report from the Denver Restaurant Liaison Office noted that labor costs are the most frequently cited challenge among operators and owners report little wiggle room to further raise menu prices.