The moment of clarity arrived by way of a poster at a bus stop.
Jenny Telles was driving home from her job at a state office in Denver. Idling in traffic, she spotted the ad: $19.29, the minimum wage in Denver.
That was surprising, Telles said, because she had been making a dollar less as an administrative assistant for the state Department of Revenue.
“When I saw that bus stop ad, I went back through some of my pay stubs,” she said.
Telles and other employees had recently moved from an office in Lakewood to the Colorado Department of Transportation building in Denver, at Federal Boulevard and Colfax Avenue.
But she said her pay was never adjusted to match the minimum wage in Denver, which is the highest in the state at $19.29. (The statewide rate is $15.16.) She worked in the Denver office from January to April of this year.
“I asked some of my coworkers if they had noticed a change. None of us had. So that's when I started reaching out and seeing what my options were at that point,” Telles said.
Dozens of other employees in her office were underpaid, too, Telles said.
Now she is seeking to certify the lawsuit as a class action that would cover any and all state employees who were similarly shorted over the last three years.
“Honestly, I was pretty frustrated. I mean, it's the Department of Revenue … that's kind of ironic. And I didn't feel good,” she said. “We were the ones who helped pack up everything, clean everything, move. We're the ones who were doing all the work, and we weren't even being given minimum wage for the area we were in. It really didn't feel good.”
The lawsuit seeks recovery of wages at 12% interest plus statutory penalties, damages at triple the amount of unpaid wages and attorney fees.
The lawsuit was filed by Alexander Hood and Victoria Guzman with the law firm Towards Justice. Rachel Dempsey, associate director for the firm, suspects the alleged underpayment is part of a pattern.
State lawmakers don’t want to pay local minimum wages
However, Colorado lawmakers made moves this year that could allow the state to ignore local minimum wage laws in some situations.
A bipartisan bill passed this year, SB26-193, “clarifies that the state is not an employer for the purposes of minimum wages set by local governments,” and exempts the state from some local business taxes, according to state analysts.
“That would be virtually impossible for us to keep up with because we have so many different municipalities. And in fact, this has been the case for many, many years,” said state Rep. Rick Taggart, a Republican member of the Joint Budget Committee, at a committee hearing last month.
“And the federal government has similar legislation on this particular subject … And we just want to reinforce that we cannot be bound by ordinances within municipalities without driving us completely crazy and driving our costs through the roof,” he added.
However, lawmakers amended the bill to provide more wage protections. In the final version, the state can only ignore the local minimum wage for an employee who is part of a collective bargaining agreement — meaning that the state can only ignore local minimum wages if the union agrees.
That change drew support from labor advocates, though some were still concerned. At a committee hearing, Andrew Sidley-MacKie with the Defenders Union of Colorado and CWA Local 7799 said that many “very low-paid but essential workers” are not part of unions.
“...(T)here should be an ongoing discussion and ongoing efforts to increase access to collective bargaining rights for all state employees,” he said.
Denver is one of four localities with a special minimum wage in Colorado, ranging from $16.82 in Boulder to $19.29 in Denver.
The bill passed the state House and Senate with strong majorities last month, and Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law this month. It also was sponsored by Sen. Judy Amabile and Rep. Kyle Brown, both Democrats, as well as Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Republican candidate for governor. All are Joint Budget Committee members.
Still, Telles’ lawsuit contends that the new law wouldn’t apply to her and others’ earlier claims.
Telles now works for the state in a different role at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.
Representatives for Gov. Jared Polis’ office and the Department of Revenue didn’t immediately comment on the lawsuit.
