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Colorado unemployment is super low, so why aren’t wages going up faster?

Colorado’s economy, on the surface, is humming along with unemployment rates at historic lows and some of the strongest job gains in the country.

But a closer look shows that median hourly wages are stuck; many of the new jobs being added are low-paying; and thousands of working-age adults remain disengaged from the labor force, according to the State of Working Colorado report from the Colorado Center on Law and Policy.

“We have another year of strong job growth in the state and unemployment continues to drop. But the indicator of how the economy is performing for the majority of workers — wages — still isn’t moving,” said Michelle Webster, manager of research and policy analysis with the group, which advocates on behalf of low-wage workers.