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FORT COLLINS - The so-called "living-wage" movement has found life in Fort Collins.
The movement, which began in Baltimore in 1994, is an outgrowth of antipoverty campaigns. Living-wage advocates contend that the $5.15 federal minimum wage is inadequate for subsistence and leads to homelessness and poverty.
Over the past decade, living-wage supporters have influenced a number of municipal and county governments to pass livingwage laws. In the most common form of living-wage laws, contractors with cities or counties must pay an acceptable wage before they can do business with the governmental entity.
In California, where living-wage laws are most prevalent, that living-wage prerequisite for contractors ranges from $7.25 up to $11.
The momentum that's carried the living-wage movement into Fort Collins has business worried.
"It puts an emphasis on needs rather than skills, so by its very nature it's socialist rather than capitalist," said David May, president and CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce.
"It actually harms the people it's intended to help. What ends up happening is a displacement effect based on (more) competition. To arbitrarily add $5 or $10 an hour either puts a business out of business or forces them to get by with fewer people."
May said setting a living wage of $10 an hour, for example, adds about $5 more in costs. For a business paying 10 employees the minimum wage, that results in a huge increase in expenses. "All...