As a consultant I see some businesses who pay too little in Denver and attempt to work with fewer employees (suckers) because no one with a brain wants to work for peanuts in an expensive city like Denver with a high cost of living.  The bozo business owners cry when the few employees they have get tired of being paid too little and leave them in the dust.  The very LEAST anyone needs to make is 15-20 an hour to just barely afford to live in Denver.  If you're too inept to run a business efficiently enough to pay your workers a living wage, then you really have no business being a business owner.