Colorado requires overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, after 12 hours in a workday, or after 12 consecutive hours, whichever gives you more. State rules also require a 30-minute meal period on shifts over 5 hours and a paid 10-minute rest break every 4 hours. These rules come from the COMPS Order and reach hours federal law ignores.
In this guide
The three overtime triggers, and why the daily one matters
Federal law has one overtime trigger: more than 40 hours in a workweek. Colorado's COMPS Order adds two more: more than 12 hours in a workday, and more than 12 consecutive hours regardless of how the day is split. You are owed whichever calculation produces the greater pay.
The daily trigger is where Colorado employers most often underpay. A 13-hour shift in an otherwise slow week produces overtime in Colorado and nothing under federal law, so a payroll system configured only for the federal test silently shorts every long day. Production pushes, harvest days, event shifts, and double shifts are the usual places it shows up.
Sources [1]
Who is exempt, and who only thinks they are
Overtime exemptions in Colorado depend on actual duties plus a salary threshold the state adjusts annually, not on job titles or salaried status. An 'assistant manager' who mostly runs a register, a salaried coordinator with no real authority, and an 'exempt' tech worker below the current threshold can all be owed overtime.
Misclassification also arrives by label: calling a worker an independent contractor does not decide anything. If the employer controls the work in practice, Colorado's wage rules generally apply. When an exemption is claimed, the employer bears the burden of proving it fits.
Meal periods and paid rest breaks
Colorado requires an uninterrupted 30-minute meal period on shifts over 5 hours; it can be unpaid only when you are actually relieved of duties. Eating at your station while covering the phones is working time, and it must be paid.
Separately, Colorado requires a PAID 10-minute rest period for every 4 hours worked. A missed rest break is not just a policy violation, those ten minutes are owed as wages. Across a crew, a schedule that never includes breaks quietly accumulates one of the larger line items in Colorado wage cases.
Sources [1]
Off-the-clock time that counts as work
Time the employer requires or knowingly permits is working time: pre-shift setup, post-shift cleanup and closing, mandatory meetings and trainings, donning required gear, and answering calls or messages after hours. If it is required and it takes real time, it belongs on the clock, and it counts toward the 40-hour and 12-hour triggers.
Rounding is the quiet version of the same problem. Systems that always round in the employer's favor, or auto-deduct meal breaks that never actually happen, understate hours in ways that compound across months.
What to do about it, and the clock
Reconstruct your hours first: schedules, timeclock exports, texts about shifts, and your own notes. Then the routes: a written demand under the Colorado Wage Act, a CDLE wage complaint filed online with the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, or a court claim, brought as a group case when the same policy shorted the crew.
Colorado wage claims are generally subject to a 2-year limit, 3 years for willful violations, and each pay period ages out individually. Preservation beats reconstruction: start keeping records now, even if you are not yet sure you will act.
Questions, answered.
I worked a 14-hour day but only 35 hours that week. Am I owed overtime in Colorado?
Generally yes. Colorado's COMPS Order requires time-and-a-half for hours beyond 12 in a workday or 12 consecutive hours, regardless of the weekly total. Federal law alone would say no, which is exactly why the Colorado rule matters.
Source [1]
I'm salaried. Does that mean no overtime?
Not by itself. Exemption requires both qualifying duties and a salary above the threshold Colorado adjusts each year. A salaried worker with non-exempt duties, or below the current threshold, is owed overtime despite the salary.
Source [2]
What are missed 10-minute breaks actually worth?
Ten minutes of pay each, as wages. That sounds small until it multiplies: one missed break per shift, five shifts a week, across the 2-to-3-year claim window, and across every coworker on the same schedule. In group cases it is routinely one of the largest components.
Source [1]
Does Colorado have a higher minimum wage than federal law?
Yes, and it adjusts every January, with some cities, including Denver, setting local rates above the state figure. Check the CDLE's site for the current numbers rather than trusting a figure printed on any website, including this one.
Source [5]