What are the final paycheck laws in Colorado?
When final wages are due, what counts as earned compensation, and how a written demand affects possible penalties. Read the timing rules first, then use the estimator.
- Fired
- Due immediately
- Quit
- Due on the next regular payday
- Unpaid
- 2× or 3× penalty after a demand goes unpaid
The short answer
In Colorado, when an employer ends the employment, earned wages are generally due immediately or on a short accelerated schedule; when you resign, by the next regular payday. The check must include earned, determinable compensation, and earned vacation cannot be forfeited. If a proper written demand goes unpaid, the Colorado Wage Act adds statutory penalties on top of the wages.
C.R.S. § 8-4-109(1): Final-pay timing ↗ · C.R.S. § 8-4-101(14)(a)(III): Vacation cannot be forfeited ↗ · Wage Protection Rules 2.16–2.18 ↗
Estimate Colorado’s final-paycheck penalty formula
Your entries stay on this page unless you choose to include an outcome with a case-review request.
Enter the details, then select Calculate. The result shows how the cited statutory formula works, not what you are owed.
Enter the details, then select Calculate. The result shows how the cited statutory formula works, not what you are owed.
Shows how the cited statutory formula works with the numbers you enter. It is not legal advice and does not determine what you are owed.
Positive estimates below $0.50 are shown as “Less than $1.” Other amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar, with half dollars rounded up.
The 14-day payment period runs after a written demand is sent, or an administrative claim or civil action is sent to or served on the employer; this calculator does not determine that deadline.
It does not decide whether wages were earned and when they were due, whether a demand or claim qualified, tender, lawful deductions, willfulness, or any waiver or reduction.
How this calculator works · full text
This calculator provides a general informational estimate of how Colorado’s statutory penalty formula works with the numbers you enter. It is not legal advice and does not determine what you are owed. Whether the formula applies depends on facts this calculator does not decide: whether wages were earned and when they were due, whether a demand or claim qualified, tender, lawful deductions, willfulness, and any waiver or reduction. Amounts are shown rounded to the nearest dollar. This calculator does not determine the 14-day deadline.
Calculator model co-2026-09-06.1. Amounts are exact cents internally and rounded only for display.
The questions people ask, answered
When is my final paycheck due in Colorado?
- Fired or laid off
- Earned, vested and determinable wages are generally due immediately. If the payroll accounting unit is not scheduled to operate, payment is due within 6 hours after its next regular workday starts; an off-site unit has up to 24 hours after that start to deliver the check as the statute directs.
- Quit or resigned
- By the next regular payday, made available at the work site, the employer’s local office or your last-known mailing address, as selected by the employer.
- Disputed amount
- The undisputed part is still due on time. Disputing does not pause the clock.
C.R.S. § 8-4-109(1)
What has to be in it?
- Hours worked
- Every hour through your last day, including overtime.
- Earned vacation
- It is wages and cannot be forfeited at separation (Nieto v. Clark's Market). Use-it-or-lose-it clauses do not erase it.
- Commissions, bonuses
- Included when earned, vested and determinable under the plan, even if they would normally pay out later.
- Not wages
- Severance you were never promised; unvested or discretionary bonuses.
C.R.S. §§ 8-4-101(14), 8-4-109(1); Nieto v. Clark's Market (Colo. 2021)
Sources: C.R.S. § 8-4-101(14): Earned compensation and vacation · C.R.S. § 8-4-101(14)(a)(III): Vacation cannot be forfeited
What can my employer deduct from it?
- Allowed
- Taxes, court-ordered withholdings, and deductions you authorized in writing for your own benefit.
- Not allowed
- "Damage", "shortage", "unreturned equipment", or a broad handbook clause, without a specific legal basis.
- Employer property
- A narrow accounting exception exists when you handled money or goods. If that is you, choose the review route in the estimator.
C.R.S. § 8-4-105
Sources: C.R.S. § 8-4-105: Permitted deductions · C.R.S. § 8-4-109(1)(b): Property accounting exception
What happens if my final paycheck is late?
- The trigger
- A written demand sent after wages are past due, an administrative claim, or a civil action reaching the employer opens a 14-day payment period. The due date alone does not.
- After 14 days
- The greater of 2× the unpaid wages or $1,000.
- If willful
- The greater of 3× or $3,000. It replaces the standard formula; the two are not added.
- Full payment
- Paying everything demanded in good faith by the deadline prevents or changes the penalty. Disputing the amount does not.
- Waiver, reduction
- In an administrative claim, a 2025 provision lets the Director waive a penalty after a later cure, and the Division may reduce one after timely post-citation payment. The formula figures are before any waiver, reduction, or defense; they are not total recovery.
$3,200 still unpaid when the period ends: standard formula $6,400; if willfulness is proven, $9,600. Two legal branches, not a range.
C.R.S. §§ 8-4-109(3)(a)–(d) and (3.5); 7 CCR 1103-7 Rules 2.16 and 2.18; HB25-1001
Sources: C.R.S. § 8-4-109(3): Penalties and defenses · Wage Protection Rules 2.16–2.18
How do I send a written demand?
- When
- Send the demand after wages are past due. The statutory period runs from sending the written demand; for an administrative claim or civil action, it runs when the claim or action is sent to or served on the employer.
- What to say
- What is owed, for what, and where to send it. Short, factual, dated. Keep a copy and proof of sending.
- Or file instead
- An administrative wage claim or civil action can also trigger the 14-day period when sent to or served on the employer. Preserve proof of that date; filing alone is not the same event.
C.R.S. § 8-4-109(3); CDLE demand guidance
Sources: C.R.S. § 8-4-109(3): Written demand and payment period
How long do I have?
C.R.S. § 8-4-122 · Evidence goes stale much sooner: pay stubs, schedules and the demand itself are what a claim is built on.
SOURCES
C.R.S. § 8-4-109(1): Final-pay timing ↗ · C.R.S. § 8-4-101(14)(a)(III): Vacation cannot be forfeited ↗ · Wage Protection Rules 2.16–2.18 ↗ · C.R.S. § 8-4-101(14): Earned compensation and vacation ↗ · C.R.S. § 8-4-105: Permitted deductions ↗ · C.R.S. § 8-4-109(1)(b): Property accounting exception ↗ · C.R.S. § 8-4-109(3): Penalties and defenses ↗ · C.R.S. § 8-4-122: Limitation of actions ↗