If it were up to Green Party gubernatorial candidate Harry Hempy, cities and counties would have the choice to raise their minimum wages individually, the best way for Colorado communities to keep up with the rising cost of living.

Hempy, a retired IBM computer scientist with a career spanning 40 years, spoke to a small audience at the Millibo Art Theatre on South Tejon Street on Sunday about his plan to raise minimum wages for workers in Colorado.

Minimum wage in Colorado is $8 per hour and is increased or decreased based on inflation, but Hempy argued that the cost of living keeps getting higher while wages keep getting lower.

“Since the bank crisis of 2008, the median wage in Colorado hasn’t improved for anyone,” Hempy said. “Wages fell .9 percent in 2013, so regardless of how many jobs have been created, the fact is that people are making less money to pay for services that cost more.”

Hempy, a Boulder County resident, chose Colorado Springs resident and Pikes Peak Peace and Justice Commission executive director Scott Olson as his candidate for lieutenant governor. Olson said the push to give cities authority to establish minimum wages makes part of the Green Party’s “local control” concept, where government is decentralized and communities govern themselves with limited oversight from the state or federal levels.

“We reject the idea that the same minimum wage is fair across the board because goods and services do not cost the same across state lines,” Olson said.

Hempy said his first order of business as governor would be to repeal a clause in the Peace Labor Act that prohibits cities from setting their own minimum wage. Other top priorities, Hempy said, are to create a multiparty government because, he argued, two parties are not enough to represent everyone in the country.

Doing away with party primaries, which Hempy said cost about $3 million per election, would save money, place less stress on fundraising and use supporters’ donations more efficiently.

“I believe that everyone making minimum wage deserves to earn a living wage, and it’s in our power and our responsibility to make sure they do,” Hempy said.

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Contact Andrea Sinclair: 636-0235

Harry Hempy. Photo from hempy4governor.org.