It’s time we stopped pitting small businesses and workers against each other and focused on the big corporate interests being richly rewarded by Donald Trunp. We have a corrupt system of law that allows large corporations and a handful of individuals to amass eye-popping wealth at the expense of the rest of us. Approximately eight hundred billionaires own as much wealth as the bottom fifty percent of this county. I will fight the harmful influence of corporate money on our politics and make sure that we have a worker-centered economy that rewards small business by:

• Setting minimum wage and other standards for contractors and gig workers, regardless of whether they have been historically considered “employees” under labor and employment laws.

• Adopting stiffer penalties for misclassification employees as independent contractors. 

• Repealing the Colorado Labor Peace Act.

• Increasing the state’s ability to regulate labor relations given the National Labor Relations Boards’ hostility towards workers under the Trump Administration and increasing penalties for violating laws protecting the right to unionize.

• Enshrining public policy exceptions to at-will employment.

• Increasing the minimum wage and eliminating the tipped wage worker exception.

• Assisting small businesses with free technical support, including legal advice about compliance with workplace laws, negotiating fair leases with landlords, and other support.

• Providing tax incentives and subsidies to small businesses and helping with start-up and maintenance costs by imposing a tax on large corporations and setting aside funds.

• Working with the Public Utilities Commission to reduce prices of utilities for small businesses.

• Funding legal representation for small businesses if the Supreme Court reverses the Trump tariffs so that our small businesses can be reimbursed, not just the giant corporations that have already filed their claims.