Boulder is eyeing a change to its tip rules that could let restaurants shave a bit more off servers' base hourly pay, even as the city's minimum wage keeps climbing. City staff laid out early options for City Council this spring, and officials have now opened a public input period aimed squarely at tipped workers and business owners. Any tweak, they stress, would still require employers to cover the gap if tips do not bring a worker's take-home pay up to the full minimum wage.
How the tip offset works
Right now, Boulder uses a $3.02 tip offset, which is the amount employers are allowed to subtract from a tipped worker's base hourly pay. With the city's minimum wage at $16.82, that translates to a tipped base wage of $13.80. According to the City of Boulder, the offset applies only to food and beverage employees. A 2025 state law gives local governments new authority to raise that offset, subject to the limits outlined in HB25-1208. The city notes that any change still has to respect the state's tipped wage floor, and that employers remain on the hook if tips do not make up the difference.
Options on the table
Staff floated four broad paths for the council to study, from sticking with the current $3.02 offset to freezing the tipped base pay or pegging the offset to a percentage of the minimum wage, as reported by the Boulder Reporting Lab. Denver7 quotes city communications manager Shannon Aulabaugh saying, "We're looking at $1.35 would be the maximum increase possible," and noting that the four scenarios differ by roughly 30 cents. Councilmembers asked staff to dig into the trade-offs before drafting any ordinance, and staff plans to use public feedback to sharpen the proposals.
What's at stake
Supporters of a modest offset increase argue that giving restaurants a little more room on base pay could help independent operators keep up with rising costs. Opponents counter that slowing the growth of base pay shifts more risk onto workers who depend heavily on tips. The Colorado Restaurant Association told Denver7 it appreciated the city "listening to independent restaurants," while local server Rachel Rose Isaacson told reporters she worries the potential changes would "add instability" for workers already juggling multiple jobs. The fight lines up with a broader statewide debate over how to balance restaurant survival with wage security for tipped staff.
Next steps
The city is gathering feedback through June 2 on its BeHeardBoulder platform, and staff expect to return to the council with ordinance options for public hearings in July or August, according to the City of Boulder. If the council ultimately approves a change this fall, the new tip offset and related tipped base wage would take effect in January 2027, the city says.
