Minimum-wage workers in Colorado can look forward to making an additional 14 cents an hour at the start of the year.

On Jan. 1, the state’s full minimum wage will rise from $7.64 to $7.78 an hour, while the tipped hourly wage will rise from $4.62 to $4.76, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

The pay increase is expected to benefit 66,000 low-wage workers in the state, a group that includes 57,000 people earning the current minimum wage and another 9,000 whose wages will fall below the increased minimum wage next year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

The nation’s economic downturn has pushed more workers into low-wage jobs, which account for about 58 percent of the jobs created during the recovery, estimates a study from the National Employment Law Project.

The EPI estimates that about 68 percent of those earning the minimum wage in Colorado are at least 20 years old, 74.6 percent work at least 20 hours a week and 42 percent have some college education.

For full-time workers, the extra 14 cents an hour will translate into about $300 more in income across next year.

Colorado voters in 2006 approved a constitutional amendment linking annual changes in the state’s minimum wage to the Denver-Boulder Consumer Price Index.