Colorado is becoming unlivable. People feel it in their homes. People feel it in their bank accounts. People feel it every time they walk into a grocery store and walk out with less than they could afford last year. Rent is over two thousand dollars for a one bedroom. Groceries take half a paycheck. Insurance keeps rising. Medical bills keep rising. Utilities keep rising. Everything keeps rising except wages. The math is not mathing. The math has not math’d in years. People are working and sinking at the same time. People are doing everything right and still failing. That is the truth nobody in power wants to admit.

Families are not just struggling. Families are breaking under the pressure. Parents are skipping meals so their children can eat. People with full time jobs are visiting food banks. Elders are cutting medication because they cannot afford the co pay. Single parents are working until their bodies ache and still fall short. People are choosing between food and rent. Between bills and survival. Between keeping the lights on or keeping gas in the car. People feel fear every time the first of the month comes around. People feel the pressure building and nobody is stepping in to help.

I care about this because I live here. I see what is happening to my community. I see people losing homes they fought hard to keep. I see families moving out of Colorado because they cannot survive the cost of living. I see parents crying in their cars before walking inside so their kids do not see their stress. I see people trying to stretch food that cannot be stretched. I see the fear. I see the weight. I see the truth of what people are carrying.

Colorado law gives us the right to demand a Wage Board Review with seventy five signatures. Most people do not know this right exists. Nobody teaches it. Nobody explains it. Nobody puts it in front of us because once people know they have power they start using it. We are using it now. This petition forces the state to face reality. This petition forces them to look at the real numbers. This petition forces a public hearing where our voices must be heard.

Wages in Colorado do not match the world we are living in today. Wages do not match the cost of basic survival. People cannot survive on wages built for an economy that no longer exists. Twenty eight to thirty dollars an hour is not luxury. It is survival in Colorado right now. It is the minimum needed to live without drowning in bills and fear.

People are tired. People are hurting. People are stretched so thin they barely feel like themselves anymore. People are carrying shame for things that are not their fault. People are carrying stress that is breaking their health and their peace. This is not about asking for more. This is about asking for enough. Enough to live. Enough to breathe. Enough to survive in the place we call home.

Colorado deserves wages that make sense. Colorado deserves leadership that listens before people fall apart. Colorado deserves a future where working people are not punished for trying to survive. Survival should not be a privilege. Survival should not feel like a monthly fight. Survival should not take everything from a person.

This is why I am doing this. This is why this matters. The time to make the math make sense is now. The time to fight for survival is now. The time to stand up before people are pushed out of their own state is now. If we do not act now we will watch everything collapse around us. If we do not speak now we will not be heard later. The time is NOW!

You should sign this petition if you live in Colorado or are directly affected by Colorado’s cost of living. You do not need to be a voter. You do not need to be employed. You do not need to be a citizen. If you pay Colorado rent, buy Colorado groceries, pay Colorado medical costs, or feel the economic pressure happening in this state, your signature is valid. Colorado residents carry the most weight in the wage review process.