State labor lawRead at source, 24 September 2026

Colorado Labor Laws for Employers (2026): Breaks, Overtime, Final Pay and Hiring

Colorado employers follow the COMPS Order, which requires a 30-minute meal period for shifts over five hours and a paid 10-minute rest break per four hours. Overtime is due after 40 hours a week, 12 hours in a workday or 12 consecutive hours. The minimum wage is $15.16 in 2026 and rises to $15.71 on January 1, 2027; Denver's is $19.29. Fired employees are paid immediately, every employer provides up to 48 hours of paid sick leave a year, and every job posting must show the pay range, benefits and application close date.

Colorado employment law at a glance

Colorado regulates more of the working day than most states. Its wage rules sit in the Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards Order, known as the COMPS Order, which the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics in the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reissues most years. The current version is COMPS Order #40, effective February 1, 2026, and it covers all employers and employees for work performed in Colorado, subject to the exemptions in its Rule 2. The dollar figures that change each year are published separately in the 2026 PAY CALC Order.

Colorado break laws

Colorado is one of the few states that requires both a meal period and a paid rest break for adults. Under COMPS Order Rule 5.1, employees are entitled to an uninterrupted, duty-free meal period of at least 30 minutes when a shift exceeds five consecutive hours. To the extent practical it should start at least one hour after the shift begins and end at least one hour before it finishes. The meal period can be unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved of all duties. Where the work makes an uninterrupted break impractical, the employee must be allowed to eat on duty and be paid for that time. CDLE's INFO #4 on meal and rest periods adds that an employer can't simply declare every meal period impractical and never provide one.

Rest breaks are paid. Rule 5.2 requires a compensated 10-minute rest period for each four hours of work or major fraction of four hours, which works out like this:

A missed rest break is treated as unpaid wages: Rule 5.2.4 says that failing to authorize and permit a required 10-minute break is a failure to pay 10 minutes of wages. An employee can agree, in writing or on a given day, to take two 5-minute breaks instead of one 10-minute break where five minutes is enough to reach a restroom.

Minors and nursing employees

Minors are covered by the same COMPS meal and rest rules; there's no separate break rule for teenagers. Their hours are limited instead: under C.R.S. 8-12-105 a minor under 16 may not work more than six hours after school on a school day (unless the next day isn't a school day) or between 9:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. before a school day, and no minor may work more than 40 hours a week or eight hours in 24 hours. CDLE's Colorado Youth Employment Standards Rules took effect February 1, 2026. For nursing employees, C.R.S. 8-13.5-104 requires reasonable unpaid break time, or use of paid break and meal time, to express breast milk for up to two years after the child's birth, in a private location other than a toilet stall. The federal PUMP Act applies as well, for one year after birth. For how Colorado compares, see our meal break laws by state.

Colorado overtime laws

Colorado pays overtime on three triggers. COMPS Order Rule 4.1.1 requires time and one-half of the regular rate for work in excess of 40 hours in a workweek, 12 hours in a workday, or 12 consecutive hours regardless of when the workday starts and ends. Whichever calculation produces the greater payment applies, and hours can't be averaged across two workweeks. The consecutive-hours trigger is the one schedulers miss: a double shift that crosses midnight can pass 12 consecutive hours without passing 12 hours in either workday. A compliant meal period may be subtracted when counting those consecutive hours.

There's no daily overtime at 8 hours in Colorado, so a 4x10 schedule is an ordinary 40-hour week. Our overtime laws by state page works through common shift patterns.

A higher salary line for exempt employees

Colorado sets its own salary test. Under the 2026 PAY CALC Order, an executive, administrative or professional employee must earn at least $1,111.23 a week ($57,784 a year, rounded) to be exempt from overtime, well above the federal level of $684 a week that the U.S. Department of Labor currently enforces. Highly technical computer employees need $34.85 an hour or the same salary, and the highly compensated employee level is $130,014. A supervisor paid $50,000 a year in Colorado is owed overtime regardless of duties. See exempt vs. non-exempt for the duties side of the test.

Paying employees in Colorado

Minimum wage. The statewide minimum is $15.16 an hour in 2026, with a $12.14 cash wage for tipped employees when tips make up the $3.02 difference. CDLE announced on August 13, 2026 that the rate will rise to $15.71 on January 1, 2027, a 3.6% increase, with a $12.69 tipped cash wage. Employers may pay non-emancipated minors 15% less ($12.89 in 2026). Denver and a few other local governments set higher floors; see our Colorado minimum wage page for the detail.

Pay frequency. C.R.S. 8-4-103 requires regular pay periods no longer than one calendar month or 30 days, whichever is longer, and regular paydays no later than ten days after each pay period closes, unless employer and employee agree otherwise.

Final paychecks. When the employer ends the employment, wages are due immediately under C.R.S. 8-4-109. If the payroll office isn't scheduled to be working at that moment, the pay must be available within six hours of the start of its next regular workday, or within 24 hours if the payroll office is off site. An employee who quits is paid on the next regular payday. If you provide paid vacation, all vacation pay earned under your policy must be paid at separation (C.R.S. 8-4-101(14)(a)(III); see PTO payout laws by state). The deadlines for every state are on our final paycheck laws by state page.

Colorado hiring laws

Most of Colorado's distinctive rules apply before the first shift, and several of them govern the job ad itself. CDLE groups them on its job postings and hiring page.

• Pay in every posting. The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, C.R.S. 8-5-201, requires the hourly or salary pay or pay range the employer in good faith expects to pay, a general description of benefits and other compensation, and the date the application window is expected to close. CDLE says this applies to all postings, internal and public, and the Act defines an employer as anyone employing a person in Colorado (C.R.S. 8-5-101), so there is no size threshold. Within 30 days after a selected candidate starts, the employer must tell the people they'll work with who got the job and how to express interest in future openings. See CDLE's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act page.
• No salary history. Employers may not ask about an applicant's pay history or rely on it to set pay.
• Ban-the-box. The Colorado Chance to Compete Act, C.R.S. 8-2-130, has applied to all employers since September 1, 2021. You can't ask about criminal history on the initial application, and you can't say in an ad or application that people with a criminal record may not apply. Our ban-the-box laws by state page covers other states.
• No age questions. The Job Application Fairness Act, C.R.S. 8-2-131, bars asking for age, date of birth, or school attendance or graduation dates on an initial application from July 1, 2024.
• Credit history and social media. CDLE also lists the Employment Opportunity Act, which restricts use of credit history, and a law barring employers from requiring access to personal social media accounts.
• E-Verify and Form I-9. Colorado doesn't require private employers to use E-Verify. Every employer must complete a federal Form I-9 for each hire.
• New-hire reporting. Report each new or rehired employee within 20 days of hire, according to the federal Office of Child Support Services' state new hire reporting table. Colorado is one of the states that also requires businesses to report independent contractors (service providers).
• Minors. There's no general work permit. A 14- or 15-year-old needs a school release permit to work during school hours on a school day (C.R.S. 8-12-113), and an employer may ask for an age certificate. The child labor laws by state page has the national picture.
• Noncompetes. Under C.R.S. 8-2-113, a noncompete is void unless the worker earns at least the state's threshold for highly compensated workers and the covenant protects trade secrets. For hourly frontline staff, that effectively means no noncompete.

Paid sick leave and family leave in Colorado

The Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA) has covered every Colorado employer since January 1, 2022. Employees earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year (C.R.S. 8-13.3-403), and overtime hours count toward accrual. HFWA also provides extra public health emergency leave, which CDLE's wage and hour page lists as not currently in effect. CDLE's Wage Protection Rules set out the accrual details.

Colorado also runs a paid family and medical leave insurance program. FAMLI premiums are 0.88% of wages in 2026, split 0.44% employer and 0.44% employee; employers with nine or fewer employees send in 0.44% of wages. Workers can receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave a year, with additional time in some cases.

Posters and records

CDLE lists its required workplace notices on its posters page, including the COMPS Order poster for the current year, the Workplace Public Health Rights poster and the Notice of Paydays poster. The COMPS poster goes where employees can easily read it during the workday; where that is impractical, each employee gets a copy in the first month. Federal posters are separate. Our labor law posters by state page links each state agency.

Local ordinances: Denver, Edgewater and Boulder

Four Colorado local governments set their own minimum wage. For 2026: Denver is $19.29 an hour ($16.27 for tipped food and beverage workers with at least $3.02 in documented tips), Edgewater is $18.17, and both the City of Boulder and unincorporated Boulder County are $16.82. Scheduled 2027 rates include $19.84 in Denver (per CDLE's announcement) and $18.17 in the City of Boulder; check Edgewater's and Boulder County's pages for their 2027 figures. Colorado Springs and Aurora have no local minimum wage. The local rate applies wherever the work is performed, so price each role to the location where the employee actually works.

What this means when you're hiring hourly workers in Colorado

Colorado is the state where compliance and ad performance point the same way. A Colorado posting must show the pay or pay range and the benefits anyway, and pay in the first line of a job ad is also what gets a frontline candidate to stop scrolling. Build the range from the local floor ($19.29 in Denver, not $15.16) and your actual rates, list the benefits in a sentence, and include the application close date. Keep the application short and free of criminal-history, age and pay-history questions, which Colorado bars on the initial application anyway. Our job ad copywriting guide has templates, and the employee cost calculator shows what a Colorado hire costs at the wage you plan to pay. In Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark, 70% of the difference in cost per applicant between campaigns came from what happens after the click, which is why a short application matters as much as the ad.

Frequently asked questions

Sources read 24 September 2026: CDLE (COMPS Order #40, 2026 PAY CALC Order, Wage Protection Rules, INFO #4, YES Rules), C.R.S. Title 8, FAMLI, U.S. DOL and the federal Office of Child Support Services.