The minimum wage rule enacted in 2006 to the Colorado Constitution requires the state’s minimum wage rate to be adjusted each year for inflation. The inflation adjustment is based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the Denver-Boulder-Greeley combined area. This adjustment is based on the difference between the CPI-U from the first half of the prior year and the first half of the current year. The CPI-U increased 1.7% from the first half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2010.  This adjustment will increase the 2011 minimum wage rate to $7.36 per hour, effective January 1, 2011.  The Tip credit for 2011 has changed, so the minimum wage rate for “Tipped Employees” will be $4.34 ($7.36 - $3.02).

The current federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) is lower than the new state minimum wage, so the higher state rate will need to be used by all employers. Colorado employers that are allowed to use the tip credit will need to use the state’s minimum wage rate for tipped employees of $4.34 as well. 

For More information please go to the Colorado Department of Labor’s information page.

The US Department of Labor has recently released their new smartphone application, and instead of explaining its advantages to employers, they state the reason for this app is so the employees do not have to rely on their employer’s records. What? Quoting DOL’s press release, “The first DOL application for smartphones is a timesheet to help employees independently track the hours they work and determine the wages they are owed… This information could prove invaluable during a Wage and Hour Division investigation” and “This new technology is significant because, instead of relying on their employer’s records, workers now can keep their own records.”

So my interpretation of the message the DOL is presenting is employers are no longer to be trusted keeping and recording time worked by their employees or to determine the wages they are owed. The current DOL Administration continues to show their bias against employers through this press release.

With that being said, I believe the actual application could be useful to employers and mobile employees. The application makes it pretty easy to track hours through a few pushes of buttons and at the end of the pay period can be emailed to the supervisor for approval, or for the purposes of the DOL to the employee’s attorney or DOL representative. Providing employers with a free application to improve recording time worked by employees would be very beneficial to the productivity of our country and economy. I do not know how the DOL thinks that economic recovery is going to happen by attacking employers at every turn. The DOL should have released the application with information going to employers getting “buy in” and stating the benefits to them provided by the app.

The Department of Labor and Employment has submitted a draft proposed rule to establish fines associated with employee misclassification. If this rule is approved and enacted, an employer who willfully misclassified an employee as an independent contractor will be fined by the CDLE. The CDLE will fine first offenders 5% of each misclassified employees annual gross wages or $100, which ever is greater. Also, repeat offenders will be fined 25% of each misclassified employees annual gross wages or $500, whichever is greater. This is just the fine; employers should expect to pay the unemployment taxes on these misclassified employees as well as having the IRS and state revenue department being notified.

If you have questions concerning employee and independent contractor classifications feel free to contact your representative at StaffScapes to discuss further.

The proposed rule or amendment may be found here.