A place thrives when its people thrive. A worker-centered economy is not just an ideal—it’s the key to unlocking long-term success and sustainability. When we prioritize employees, we invest in a healthier, more vibrant economy for everyone. By ensuring fair wages, job security, and opportunities for skill development, we create a cycle of growth that benefits all—families, neighborhoods, and local businesses alike.  At the same time, we need to support the local businesses that bring a unique flavor and vibrancy to Denver and Colorado, making them desirable and special places to live and raise a family. 

• Set standards for contractors and gig workers. In our new economy, fewer and fewer workers are classified as “employees.” Given the explosion of contractors, we need companies and general contractors to ensure certain minimum labor requirements are met by subcontractors. Similarly, we need to legislate minimum standards for gig workers, ensuring fair compensation and safety protections. Although some services will soon be required to disclose financial information, we must require full financial transparency in all app-based transactions so that workers and customers know where the money is going.

• Stiffer penalties for intentional misclassification. Intentional misclassification of employees as contractors results in tens of millions of dollars lost in state revenue and hundreds of millions in loss of pay to workers every year in this state. We need to increase the penalties for intentional misclassification and clarify the definitions of employees, contractors, and employers including joint employers.

• Reforming labor laws for worker empowerment. It is abnormally difficult to form a union in Colorado. We need to repeal the Colorado Labor Peace Act and replace it with laws that make it easier for workers to unionize across industries, as well as increase penalties for companies that violate the rights of workers to organize.

• Enshrine public policy exceptions to at-will employment. Many workers rely on a common law public policy exemption to the at-will employment doctrine to enforce whistleblower protections. We need to ensure that this enforcement mechanism is enshrined in law and reflects the scope of the anti-retaliation provisions it is used to enforce.

• Increase the minimum wage: The cost of living in Colorado is expensive. We need to increase the minimum wage statewide and eliminate the tipped wage worker exception. We need to encourage municipalities to adopt living wage ordinances.

• Supporting local and small businesses. Not all businesses have the same financial resources. We need to foster local businesses by providing them with additional savings and resources, such as offering free legal consulting services, tax relief, rebates, grants, energy subsidies, and helping them to negotiate favorable rents with landlords. This way, workers can thrive at the same time our small businesses do.