Earlier this year, Gov. Jared Polis signed into law a measure allowing local governments to raise their minimum wage beyond where it stands at a state or national level. Next month, Denver may prove to be the first city in the state to exercise this power.

The mile-high city was already on track to increase the minimum wage to $12 per hour by January of 2020, along with the rest of Colorado. In a new proposal from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and City Councilwoman Robin Kneich last Thursday, though, over 100,000 workers may find themselves getting a raise to $13.80 per hour instead.

The proposal—which won’t reach the City Council for approval until the end of November—isn’t stopping there, though. Its end goal is to reach $15.87 per hour by 2021—a fifteen percent increase from our current minimum wage, $11.10 per hour.

In accordance with Polis’ law, town halls are being held throughout the month of October for the affected populace to voice their opinions with their representatives.

The responses to this proposal have been mixed; the age-old question of whether or not to raise the minimum wage produces little consensus between workers and business owners. Restaurateurs in particular are worried about its impact, citing that it may result in workers receiving less hours, being laid off, or in the closure of small mom-and-pop establishments.

“It makes me sick to think about the fast-changing expenses restaurants are having to accommodate for. Especially with the already slim margins they’re operating under,” Katie Lazor, executive director of EatDenver, a nonprofit group of locally-owned, independent restaurants told 5280, “The question is, where will restaurant operators get that budget from?”

They also fear it will worsen the wage gap between front-house employees (waiters and servers who earn below the minimum wage as well as tips) and back-house employees (cooks who rely solely on wages). For restaurants to ensure they can keep their back-house employees, they’ll have to raise that baseline as well.

“You continue to spread this problem of kitchen staff making $13-$18 and waitstaff all making $25-$30 an hour,” said Denver restaurateur Ryan Fletter, continuing, “It makes the hardest job in the restaurant, which is in the kitchen, that much more of a pathetic position to be in.”

But studies have shown that in cities where the minimum wage has been raised, these ominous premonitions have yet to come to fruition. The only exception has been Seattle, where the results were inconclusive. It seems to be all talk, no action.

“You can always find businesses that will tell you that they’ll have to lay everybody off and close down, but we haven’t seen that happen,” Sylvia Allegretto, co-chair of the Center on Wage & Employment Dynamics at Berkeley, told the Denver Post. “[A higher wage] helps with efficiency, it helps lower turnover, [and] it increases productivity.”

While restaurateurs bring up valid concerns, upping the minimum wage is a natural byproduct of inflation that is pointless to fight against. As a city with a growing technology industry that some are beginning to refer to as ‘Silicon Mountain,’ the cost of living in Denver has seen some dramatic shifts. In the last five years alone, rent has gone up 18 percent and continues to climb at a rate of two percent a year.

“Our residents are struggling to keep up with the cost of living in the face of a decade of wage stagnation, and all the housing policies in the world cannot make up for wages that don’t keep pace with our local costs,” Councilwoman Kniech said in an interview with the Denver Post.

The raise is more than overdue. On any given night, there are over 5,000 homeless people in Denver—a significant portion of whom hold minimum-wage jobs. If this proposal was approved, 50 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of African Americans working in Denver would get a raise. While it may not be enough to bring people of color out of poverty and the homeless into shelters, it can at least take some of the burden off the shoulders of those who make up the heart of our city.

Our local restaurants and businesses have to be adaptable, if they seek to stay relevant in an ever-changing landscape. As Henry Ford once said: “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”