Are you owed pay from a Colorado job?
Colorado wage law may entitle you to unpaid overtime, missed break premiums and unreimbursed expenses. Deadlines, filing routes and available remedies depend on what happened and which law applies.
Not sure the math is off? You can request a review even without your pay records in hand.
Updated August 25, 2026
Colorado requires overtime after forty hours in a week, after twelve hours in a single day, or after twelve consecutive hours, daily overtime that federal law and most states do not provide. State rules require a thirty-minute meal period on shifts over five hours and a paid ten-minute rest period for every four hours worked, earned vacation cannot be forfeited when you leave, and paid sick leave accrues under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. Wage claims are generally subject to a two-year limit, three years for willful violations.
Wage-and-hour information by city in Colorado
Select your city for locally relevant filing information, agency routes, and a case review with your state already selected.
- BoulderWage-and-hour information
- Colorado SpringsWage-and-hour information
- DenverWage-and-hour information
- Fort CollinsWage-and-hour information
What Colorado law requires.
The rules that most often get broken, each linked to the statute or agency guidance it comes from. More on Colorado wage rules: Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE), Division of Labor Standards and Statistics ↗.
1.5x the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, over 12 in a workday, or over 12 consecutive hours, whichever gives the greater pay. Colorado's daily-overtime rule comes from the COMPS Order and reaches long single days that federal law does not.
Employers must pay at least the Colorado minimum wage for all hours worked, and some cities, including Denver, set a higher local rate. Both change annually; the CDLE publishes the current statewide rate.
State rules generally require a 30-minute meal period for shifts over five hours and a PAID 10-minute rest period for every four hours worked. Missed paid rest breaks are owed as wages.
When an employer ends the employment, earned wages are generally due immediately or on an accelerated schedule; when you resign, by the next regular payday. Earned vacation counts as wages under the Colorado Wage Act and cannot be forfeited at separation.
When an employer fails to pay earned wages after a proper written demand, the Colorado Wage Act adds statutory penalties on top of the wages owed, with larger penalties for willful nonpayment.
Under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, employees generally accrue one hour of paid sick leave per 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year, usable for health and safety needs.
The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act bars pay discrimination based on sex and requires pay ranges in job postings; complaints run through the CDLE.
Being labeled an independent contractor does not control; if you are an employee in practice, you keep Colorado's wage-and-hour protections.
Unpaid wages, missed breaks, and misclassification add up fast, often across a whole crew. A free, private review tells you what you may be owed.
How long you have.
Colorado wage claims are generally subject to a two-year limit, extended to three years for willful violations, and the clock runs from when the wages were owed. Because the Wage Act's penalties turn on a proper written demand, acting early preserves both the claim and the penalty.