Colorado gives workers two things most states don't: overtime that starts after twelve hours in a single day, and a penalty statute that can triple what your employer owes. Both are written down.
Colorado overtime is set by COMPS Order #40, in force since February 1, 2026.1 Rule 4.1.1 requires time and one-half for work in excess of 40 hours per workweek, 12 hours per workday, or 12 consecutive hours, and Rule 4.1.2 settles which applies: "Whichever of the three calculations in Rule 4.1.1 results in the greater payment of wages shall apply."13 Nor can your employer smooth a heavy week against a light one — Rule 4.1.3: "Hours worked in two or more workweeks shall not be averaged for computing overtime."1
One correction, because it is the error repeated most often about Colorado: the consecutive-hours rule is not meal-break-proof. Rule 4.1.5 provides that in calculating when 12 consecutive hours are worked, meal periods may be subtracted — but only if they comply with Rule 5.1.1 A thirteen-hour shift with a real, uninterrupted, off-duty lunch may not cross the line. A shift where you ate at your desk between calls is a different case.
Under C.R.S. § 8-4-109(3)(a), when an employer refuses to pay wages owed — on separation under § 8-4-109(1), or on a regular payday under § 8-4-103(1)(a) — the employee, the employee's agent, or the Division may send a written demand, which starts a fourteen-day clock.4
If the employer fails or refuses to pay "within fourteen days after the written demand is sent or within fourteen days after a civil action or administrative claim … is sent to or served on the employer," § 8-4-109(3)(b) makes it liable for the unpaid wages plus an automatic penalty of:
"(I) The greater of two times the amount of the unpaid wages or compensation or one thousand dollars; or (II) If the employee can show that the employer's failure or refusal to pay wages or compensation was willful, the greater of three times the amount of the unpaid wages or compensation or three thousand dollars."4
Two things matter there. The two-times penalty does not require willfulness — unpaid wages plus twice those wages is treble recovery on an ordinary refusal to pay. And willfulness, which takes the total to four times the wages, does not require proving state of mind: under § 8-4-109(3)(c) a failure is "per se willful" where the employee shows it is "the employer's second or subsequent failure or refusal to pay to employees wages or compensation of the same or similar type within the five years immediately preceding the claim."4
An employer that disputes the amount has one narrow exit: under § 8-4-109(3)(a.5) it can make "a legal tender of the full amount" demanded in good faith within fourteen days — but the penalty revives if the employee "recovers a greater sum than the amount the employer tendered."4 A lowball tender buys nothing, and fees follow the same comparison under § 8-4-110(1)(b)(I).7
$15.16 per hour statewide; tipped employees get a cash wage of at least $12.14, tip credit capped at $3.02.2 Denver, Edgewater, the City of Boulder and unincorporated Boulder County set higher local rates, and the Division is blunt about the effect: "Any minimum wage becomes 50% higher for hours beyond 40 per week, or 12 per day."9
The 2026 salary floor is $1,111.23 per week — $57,784 as the order's "rounded annual equivalent"; highly technical computer employees may instead be paid $34.85 per hour.2 Both come from the 2026 PAY CALC Order and are recalculated annually.
The duties tests are tougher here than federal. To be an exempt executive or supervisor, Rule 2.2.2 requires supervising at least two full-time employees, authority to hire and fire or effectively recommend it, and spending "a minimum of 50% of the workweek in duties directly related to supervision" — there is no 50% rule in the federal regulations.1 Hold a supervisor title while doing the crew's work most of the week, and Colorado law helps you where federal law does not. The administrative exemption is narrower too: Rule 2.2.1 reaches a salaried employee who "directly serves an executive."1 Serving a process is not serving an executive. The administrative exemption
Ski industry employees on downhill ski and snowboard operations, and those serving food and beverage on-mountain, are exempt from the 40-hour weekly rule under Rule 2.4.3 — but not from overtime for hours over 12 that are consecutive or within a workday.1 A sixteen-hour day at altitude is still overtime. Medical transportation workers on 24-hour shifts escape the daily rules only if weekly overtime is actually paid (Rule 2.4.4); commission salespeople only if at least half their pay is commission and their regular rate is at least one and one-half times the minimum wage (Rule 2.4.2).1 Every one of those conditions is one an employer can fail — and where classification holds up, hours still go missing to pre- and post-shift work, meals worked through, bonuses left out of the regular rate and trimmed timesheets. Off-the-clock work
Your employer can require overtime. It cannot refuse to pay for it, and it cannot retaliate. C.R.S. § 8-4-120 bars discharging, discriminating or retaliating against an employee who "[f]iled a complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted a proceeding under this article 4 or any other law or rule related to wages."6
The remedies are specific: back pay, reinstatement or front pay, the withheld wages, "interest on unpaid wages at a rate of twelve percent per annum from the date the wages were first due," and "a penalty of fifty dollars per day for each employee whose rights under this section were violated and for each day that the violation occurred or continued."6
You may file with the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, with the U.S. Department of Labor, or in court. A Division filing is not a prerequisite — its guidance describes complaints filed "in the Division or a court" — but note the cap: "the Division will award at most $7,500 in wages."8 Owed more than that, and the administrative route caps your recovery before you start without reaching the § 8-4-109(3)(b) penalty.
Structure matters for groups too. A Colorado Wage Act claim is a Rule 23 class action, which is opt-out — covered workers are in unless they affirmatively leave. The FLSA is the opposite: "No employee shall be a party plaintiff to any such action unless he gives his consent in writing."10 How class and collective actions work · Wage claim deadlines
No, but you should want to. A written demand under § 8-4-109(3)(a) starts a fourteen-day clock, and the automatic penalty under § 8-4-109(3)(b) attaches if the employer doesn't pay within it. Filing a civil action or administrative claim starts the same clock.4
The statute gives unpaid wages plus an automatic penalty of the greater of two times those wages or $1,000 — treble in total — rising to three times or $3,000 if the failure was willful. Willfulness is not required for the first tier.4
It depends whether the meal period met Rule 5.1. Compliant meal periods may be subtracted from the 12 consecutive hours; meals you actually worked through may not be.1
Often. The 2026 threshold is $1,111.23 per week ($57,784 annually), above the federal level — and even above it you must satisfy Colorado's duties tests, including the 50% supervisory-duties requirement.12
Siegel Law Group concentrates in overtime and misclassification litigation for workers and brings these cases in federal courts across the country. We represent employees only — never employers.
Consultations are free and confidential. Call (214) 790-4454 or request a case review. Siegel Law Group PLLC, 11341 W US Hwy 290, Bldg 2, Austin, TX 78737.
Agencies: Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics (cdle.colorado.gov/dlss); U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (dol.gov/agencies/whd). Rates and thresholds stated as of October 3, 2026; Colorado recalculates both annually. CDLE's 2026 COMPS poster states an effective date of January 1, 2026, while the adopted text of COMPS Order #40 and the 2026 PAY CALC Order state February 1, 2026. The $15.16 rate applies for calendar year 2026.
This page is general information about Colorado law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. This website contains attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
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Attorney advertising. Jack L. Siegel of Siegel Law Group PLLC, Austin, Texas, is responsible for this content.
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