Boulder weighs higher tip offset for restaurants
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City Council will vote Thursday on whether to let restaurants pay tipped workers less than the city's standard minimum wage beginning next year.
Why it matters: The decision could reshape restaurant labor costs and tipped workers' pay in one of Boulder's biggest workplace policy debates in years.
The latest: Council will hold a second reading on an ordinance creating a local tip offset, an option newly available under a 2025 state law.
- Boulder currently follows Colorado's $3.02 tip offset.
- Thursday's vote could determine whether to keep that or increase it starting in 2027.
What's inside: Council is weighing four options:
- No change: Keep the offset at $3.02.
- Small increase: Raise it to $3.27 in 2027, then index it to inflation.
- Larger increase: Raise it to $3.63, or 20% of the city's minimum wage.
- Maximum proposal: Increase it to $4.37 while freezing tipped workers' base wage at $13.80 through 2028, unless council renews the policy.
By the numbers: The city and county of Boulder, Denver and Edgewater are the only Colorado municipalities with minimum wages above the state's. So far, only Edgewater has adopted a larger local tip offset.
- Boulder's minimum wage is scheduled to rise to $18.17/hour in 2027.
- Without a change, tipped workers' base wage would rise to $15.15.
- Under the largest proposed offset, it would remain at $13.80 per hour for up to two years, while restaurants would see roughly $28,000 in additional annual labor savings for a model restaurant with 10 tipped employees.
Friction point: City staff say restaurants are still recovering from the pandemic.
- Restaurant sales tax revenue has flattened since 2023.
- Restaurant employment has declined for two consecutive years and visitation data also points to slowing business.
- Restaurant and business groups including the Colorado Restaurant Association, Boulder Chamber, Visit Boulder and the Downtown Boulder Partnership have urged council to increase the tip offset.
What they're saying: Boulder Chamber president John Tayer said local restaurants would be forced to close if wages continue to rise.
- "I can't ignore the incongruence in care about tipped wage rates, while dismissing the concern of workers who are forced onto the unemployment line," he wrote in a post.
Yes, but: Many tipped workers still don't earn what's considered a living wage in Boulder County.
- One Fair Wage also said business interests were using deceiving numbers that misrepresented how much Colorado restaurants were really struggling.
Between the lines: Last week's surprise resignation by Mark Wallach could serve a big blow to the restaurant bloc, as he expressed interest in slowing wage increases in the past.
- His resignation also introduces the possibility of a tie vote, which would result in no change.
What's next: If approved on second reading, the ordinance would return for formal adoption on third reading in August.