When she was elected to the legislature in 2022, Sen. Janice Marchman said was hopeful she could bring real-world experience to the state’s education policy.

Marchman, a Loveland Democrat, was the only active working teacher in the Colorado General Assembly for the past three years. In January, she decided to step away from her teaching job after changes to her contract would have negatively affected her finances, she said.

Having an outside job while being a legislator is “nearly impossible,” Marchman said, which is probably why over a quarter of Colorado’s state lawmakers are retired.

Sen. Katie Wallace, D-Longmont, is the youngest woman in the Senate and was the youngest member until Sen. William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield, joined the chamber this session. Using election filings, she compiled statistics on lawmaker demographics. The average age of Coloradans is 38, but the average age of a Colorado legislator is 54, Wallace noted. While that’s slightly younger than the average age of a member of Congress, it’s very telling, Wallace added.

“Me and Senator Lindstedt and other young members are at our peak earning phase, and we’re having to choose between doing what is purported to be a part-time job but is really a full-time job, and also having to balance that with being a legislator,” she said.

Wallace is sponsoring Senate Bill 087, which establishes legislative leave protections for members of the Colorado General Assembly who work other jobs.

The bill requires employers to allow lawmakers to take a leave of absence during the legislative session. Whether that leave is paid or unpaid is up to the employer, but they would be prohibited from terminating a legislator’s employment for requesting legislative leave.

Several other states require employers to allow for unpaid legislative leave, including Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, and Nevada.

Colorado lawmakers who began their term before 2025 are paid $43,977, while those who started after get $47,561.

The Colorado legislature is in session for 120 days, starting in January and ending sometime in May, so lawmakers are not tied to the state Capitol all year long, though some have interim committees.

This doesn’t count legislators’ per diem — allowances that they get for showing up at the state Capitol.

In 2025, legislators approved an increase — to $71 per day for lawmakers who live within 50 miles from the state Capitol. Legislators who live more than 50 miles from the Capitol get $254 per day.

Many have argued that this pay situation leaves some, especially younger legislators who are single or have families, with a difficult choice — find a job that allows them to be absent for four months of the year or live on less than the state’s median income per person.

Others have argued that Colorado has a citizen-legislature — it’s supposed to be a part time duty, a way of giving back to the community, and not a career.

Wallace said she believes the growing trend of lawmakers resigning to take higher-paying jobs is a testament to the financial realities of being a member of the General Assembly.

Recently, her colleague, Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet of Commerce City, resigned from the legislature to work for the David and Laura Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism. The position pays $150,000 to $175,000, according to Colorado Newsline.

“You’re seeing people just roll out because you simply cannot — I don’t know a place in Colorado where you can afford to live for less than $50,000 a year,” Wallace said, adding that Michaelson Jenet had looked for a job that would accommodate her duties as a legislator for years but was ultimately unsuccessful.

“She ultimately had to make the choice to take a job and a role that she really loved, but she had to leave this role that she loved and was great at in order to support her family,” she said.

Wallace said she hopes that knowing they can still keep their outside jobs during the session will encourage more people from diverse backgrounds and careers to run for state office.

“The predominant folks we’re trying to make sure are included in this bill are public sector employees, like teachers, firefighters, and county employees; those folks who really are experts in their issue-areas because of their direct experience in them, but they can’t access this because they would have to give up their job,” she said. “You need people from all these different career backgrounds to inform the policy, but they can’t come here because of that career. It kind of defeats the point.”

Marchman said she is glad to see Wallace bringing the bill.

“She’s bringing attention to what needs to be attended to,” she said. “It’s why I decided to run, because I really feel like workers and real people need real representation, but through all of it, I ended up losing my job, so now my only job is a politician, and it’s the weirdest thing.”

Senate Bill 087 has been assigned to the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee and will be heard on March 3.