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Amazon's potential move to Colorado could have greater benefits than just jobs, economy

Posted at 3:00 PM, Mar 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-11 18:57:25-04

DENVER – One of the big questions Amazon is looking at as they consider where to put their new headquarters is whether the city can provide the workforce the company needs. Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce CEO Kristen Blessman says she believes the Denver metro area can do that.

“One of the positives with Amazon coming here is they tend to do the best in communities where their employees work and live and that includes STEM programs, so I think we could use the STEM funding to get more women and girls into technology,” Blessman told Marc Stewart on this weekend’s Politics Unplugged. “The other thing that has shown is when Amazon goes into a community it brings tech talent to the state and I think we really need that tech talent here in Colorado.”

Blessman said pay equity between women and men is always a question, but she’s not as concerned about that with Amazon as she is with other companies.

“We just did our State of Women in Business last year and we did a presentation that showed the wage gap is shrinking and its doing really well in tech,” Blessman said. “Although its dominated by men, there’s less of a wage gap in tech jobs than there are in other industries that are actually dominated by women.”

Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.