Colorado Employment Law

In general, the granting of vacation leave by an employer for a current employee is made pursuant to the employer’s policy. The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics does not intervene in disputes involving the scheduling of vacation leave or the denial of use of vacation leave for current employees.

Effective January 1, 2023, Colorado’s hourly minimum wage is $13.65.

The above information on minimum wages might not be up to date & subject to change. Kindly access the DOL website for the current rates.

All regularly employed trial or grand jurors shall be paid regular wages, but not to exceed fifty dollars per day unless by mutual agreement between the employee and employer, by their employers for the first three days of juror service or any part thereof.

An employee can request or take up to three working days of leave from work in any twelve-month period, with or without pay, if the employee is the victim of domestic abuse, stalking and sexual assault, or any other crime related to domestic abuse.

State employees are entitled to up to two days of paid leave per fiscal year, cannot be accumulated. (§24-50-104) Living Organ Donor Support Act. The legislation provides paid leave for employees who would like to become a living organ donor and gives private employers a voluntary tax credit of 35% if an employee’s salary to cover up to 10 business days of paid leave. (HB1202).

Employers must allow employees who are qualified and registered to vote up to two paid hours of work time to vote in any primary or general election. Employees must apply for leave prior to election day. The employer may specify the hours during which the employee may be absent. However, if the employee requests that the time away from work be at the beginning or end of the work shift, the employer must grant this request. An employer is not required to grant voting leave to any employee who has three or more hours off from work while the polls are open on election day.

In addition to USERRA, Colorado law provides reinstatement rights for state and U.S. military service members. Employees who are called to active service must be granted unlimited unpaid time off and reinstated to their former positions with all pay, seniority, and benefits they would have had if they had been continuously employed. Additionally, Colorado provides up to 15 days of unpaid leave per year to members of the National Guard or the U.S. armed forces in order to attend military training. These members also have reinstatement rights to their former positions as long as they are still qualified for the positions. Employees must provide documentation of satisfactory completion of their training.

Every employer in private employment shall provide paid leave to each employee of the employer as follows:

• • • An employee is entitled to at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave for each hour of work performed.
    • An employee may, as determined by the employer, obtain paid leave by receiving on the first day of each benefit year the total number of hours of paid leave that the employee is entitled to accrue in a benefit year; or accruing over the course of a benefit year the total number of hours of paid leave that the employee is entitled to accrue in a benefit year.
    • Paid leave accrued over the course of a benefit year may carry over for each employee between his or her benefit years of employment, except an employer may limit the amount of paid leave for each employee carried over to a maximum of 40 hours per benefit year. An employer may limit the amount of paid leave an employee uses to 40 hours per benefit year. An employer may set a minimum increment of paid leave, not to exceed 4 hours, that an employee may use at any one time.

An employee in private employment may use paid leave available for use by that employee as follows:

• • • An employer shall allow an employee to use paid leave beginning on the 90th calendar day of his or her employment.
    • An employee may use paid leave available for use by that employee without providing a reason to his or her employer for such use.
    • An employee shall, as soon as practicable, give notice to his or her employer to use the paid leave available for use by that employee.

Employers with 50 or more employees must grant employees with children up to 4 hours of unpaid leave per school year to attend parent-teacher conferences, school activities, or school-sponsored events, or to volunteer or be involved at the school during school hours. Leave must be taken in at least one-hour increments at a time agreed to by the employer and employee. Notice and documentation requirements apply.

The Paid Sick and Safe Time leave apply to all employers from  January 1, 2022. Colorado employers of all sizes are required to provide paid sick leave to their employees, accrued at 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 48 hours per year. An employee begins accruing paid sick leave when employment begins, may use paid sick leave as it is accrued, and may carry forward up to 48 hours of paid sick leave to the following year. An employer is not required to allow the employee to use more than 48 hours of paid sick leave in a year.

Reasons for Leave

The employee has a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; needs a medical diagnosis, care, or treatment related to such illness, injury, or condition; or needs to obtain preventive medical care.

The employee needs to care for a family member who has a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; needs a medical diagnosis, care, or treatment related to such illness, injury, or condition; or needs to obtain preventive medical care. The employee or family member has been the victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or harassment and needs to be absent from work for purposes related to such crime.

A public official has ordered the closure of the school or place of care of the employee’s child or of the employee’s place of business due to a public health emergency, necessitating the employee’s absence from work.

Definition of family members includes an employee’s immediate family member (a person related by blood, marriage, civil union, or adoption), a child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis, a person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a minor, and a person for whom the employee is responsible for providing or arranging health- or safety-related care.

Employers who already have a pre-existing sick leave policy are not required to provide any additional sick leave if the employer’s plan meets or exceeds the requirements under the new law.

Front Loading

Employers may “front load” sick leave, which would provide employees with the total amount of required sick leave at the beginning of the year rather than waiting for the employee to accrue the hours.

Carry – Over

An employee’s unused sick leave must be carried over to the next year; however, an employer may limit the use of sick leave to 48 hours per calendar year.

Sick Leave Pay

Leave must be paid at the same rate of pay the employee is paid for regular working hours, or at the state minimum wage, whichever is greater. Employees transferred to a separate division of the same employer or to a successor employer must be allowed to transfer their accrued sick leave to their new place of employment.