Senate committee backs bill clarifying newspaper carrier contractor test after stakeholder changes

The Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee on Wednesday advanced Senate Bill 91, which clarifies how Colorado will classify newspaper delivery workers under unemployment and wage statutes, adopting two sponsor-led amendments intended to preserve independent contractor arrangements for many carriers.

Sen. Cutter, a lead sponsor, framed the bill as an effort to preserve home newspaper delivery and local papers by avoiding an across-the-board reclassification that would raise costs. "Local news isn't ... a highly profitable business," Cutter said, arguing that forcing uniform employee classification could force many small papers to stop home delivery.

Opponents including Kirsten Forseth of the Colorado AFL-CIO, Valerie Collins of Towards Justice and Sean Goodbody, a workers'-compensation attorney, urged caution. Collins warned that the state's fact-specific tests for employment should not be short-circuited by statute and said codifying delivery-related factors risked creating an industry carve-out. "This proposal...effectively categorically label[s] newspaper delivery drivers as independent contractors," she said.

Sponsors said the adopted strike-below (L002) removes a prior categorical exemption and instead provides guidance on how courts and agencies should apply the existing independent-contractor test to delivery operations; L003 clarifies that the new language guides, rather than replaces, the existing test. Supporters from the Colorado Press Association and local publishers said the factors reflect long-standing delivery realities (route selection, pickup location, delivery deadlines) and urged committee approval.

The committee voted 4–1 to send SB 91, as amended, to the Committee on Appropriations. Senator Henriksen cast the lone no vote.