Wages increase, foreclosure sale date extended

MONTROSE  — Several new 2008 state laws are providing more money for workers and helping struggling homeowners.

Last Jan. 1, Colorado workers saw an increase in their pay as the state’s minimum wage rose above the nation’s — jumping from the national minimum wage of $5.15 per hour to $6.85 per hour.

This Jan. 1, workers in Colorado received a 17-cent hourly increase as the state’s minimum wage rose to $7.02 per hour.

Restaurant workers also received a pay raise. In 2007 their $2.13 per hour wage increased to $3.83. The 2008 increase will bring tipped employee wages to $4 an hour.

In November 2006, Colorado voters passed Amendment 42, which increased the state minimum wage and adjusts the wage annually in line with the Denver-Boulder-Greeley Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The federal minimum wage also increased in 2007 and will rise again in 2008, but will not exceed Colorado’s. On July 24, 2007, the federal minimum wage increased to $5.85 an hour. This July 24, it will jump to $6.55, and then to $7.25 in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Workers won’t be the only ones getting a break in 2008.

Homeowners facing foreclosure have more time to bring their payments up to date, according to Colorado state statute 38-38-108, which went into effect Jan. 1.

“Basically what the new law does is it puts more time in front before the sale to bring payments current,” said Rosemary Murphy, Montrose County treasurer and public trustee.

The change is positive for homeowners because it gives them more time after receiving the “notice of election and demand” to pay delinquent mortgage payments, interest and fees to that point, she said.

Prior to 2008, a sale date (for anything with a deed of trust) was set within 45 to 60 days after the notice was received by the public trustee. This started the foreclosure process. With the new law, a sale date is set between 110 and 125 calendar days from the time the notice is received by the office, Murphy said.

Though many of the foreclosures are happening on the Front Range, Montrose County reported 102 foreclosures in 2007, the biggest jump in the last five years. In 2007, there were 87 foreclosures. That compares with 73 in 2005 and 74 in 2004, according to county treasurer’s records.

Contact Kati O’Hare via e-mail at katio@montrosepress.com