More than 65 Denver restaurateurs fight proposed tipped wage cut

More than 65 Denver restaurateurs have lined up against a proposed cut to the city’s tipped wage, warning that dropping servers and bartenders from $16.27 an hour to Colorado’s $12.14 state rate would immediately reduce take-home pay before tips are counted. On an eight-hour shift, that difference adds up to $33.04 in base wages.

The pushback came after a February 27 report, The State of Denver Restaurants, from the six-month Denver Restaurant Liaison Project led by Dana Faulk Query and Adam Schlegel and backed by Visit Denver, Denver Economic Development & Opportunity and inKind. The report said restaurants employ 7.9% of Denver’s workforce and generate about 13% of the city’s sales-tax revenue, but it also found 6% fewer restaurant-sector jobs and about 15% fewer full-service restaurant jobs in 2025 than at the start of 2020.

The report painted a sector under strain. Average hourly labor costs rose 50% to 55% from 2019 to 2024, rent increased 23%, cost of goods sold climbed 22%, and overall earnings fell nearly 20%. It also said some tipped workers were earning $35 or more per hour, but operators argued that higher wage floors were still forcing shorter shifts, leaner staffing and, in some cases, closures.

Denver’s 2026 minimum wage is $19.29 an hour, while the tipped minimum wage is $16.27 as long as workers receive $3.02 in documented tips. Colorado’s statewide minimum wage is $15.16, with a tipped wage of $12.14. A 2025 state law, HB25-1208, which took effect June 3, 2025, gave local governments new authority to increase the tip offset starting Jan. 1, 2026, within state limits. Edgewater has already used that authority, raising its 2026 tip offset to $4.67 and setting a tipped minimum wage of $13.50.

The larger fight traces back to Colorado’s 2019 change that let cities set their own minimum wages. Since then, Denver’s restaurant pay rules have become a pressure point for operators trying to protect margins and workers trying to protect the guaranteed part of their income. After the report, City Council member Darrell Watson said he was drafting legislation to lower the tipped minimum wage, though his office later said no tipped wage bill was before council.

For workers on the floor, the stakes are immediate. If restaurants absorb the hit, margins get tighter. If diners absorb it, menu prices and service charges can rise. If workers absorb it, the loss shows up in every paycheck, every tip-pool split and every decision about whether another restaurant job is worth staying for.