Washington state’s minimum wage will stay the same for 2010 at $8.55. But Colorado’s minimum will drop slightly in the new year — the first decrease in any state’s minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938.

Colorado’s wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That’s because Colorado is one of 10 states, including Washington, that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. The goal is to protect low-wage workers from having unchanged paychecks as the cost of living goes up.

But unlike Washington, Colorado’s provision also allows wage declines, and the state’s consumer price index fell 0.6 percent last year, so the minimum wage is going down.

The lower consumer price index, attributed to lower fuel prices, would have forced the wage down 4 cents an hour, But no state can go below the federal minimum of $7.25.

Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia will keep a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Alaska will join them Friday when its minimum wage rises 50 cents to $7.75.

Colorado’s drop is small — but it will prompt a pay cut for an estimated 48,000 people.

Associated Press