What are the final paycheck laws in Colorado?
When your last check is due, what it has to include, and what the law adds when it is late. Start with the estimator, then read the answers below.
- Fired
- Due immediately
- Quit
- Due on the next regular payday
- Unpaid
- 2× or 3× penalty after a demand goes unpaid
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
- Immediately. If the payroll unit is not open, within 6 hours of its next workday, or 24 hours if it is off-site.
- Quit or resigned
- By the next regular payday, at the normal place or by mail if you ask.
- 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)
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
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
How do I send a written demand?
- When
- After the wages are past due. A demand sent early does not count.
- 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
- A CDLE wage complaint or a court action reaching the employer starts the same 14-day period.
C.R.S. § 8-4-109(3); CDLE demand guidance
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.