Colorado: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Colorado requires every employer to provide covered employees paid sick leave accruing at least one hour per 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours earned and used per benefit year, with immediate use and up to 48 hours carried forward. Leave covers health and preventive care, family care, safety needs, bereavement, specified closures, and home evacuation. A separate supplement can raise available leave to 80 hours during a declared public health emergency, but official 2026 guidance confirms no qualifying emergency is currently in effect.
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This is the general rule in Colorado. Ezel applies current Colorado law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and local interaction | Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, C.R.S. §§ 8-13.3-401 to -418, plus 7 CCR 1103-7. Every employer provides accrued paid leave. Contingent PHE supplement is dormant: official INFO #6B says no PHE has been in effect since COVID-19 ended. § 8-13.3-414 preserves laws, policies, and standards providing greater accrual, use, or protections, so stronger local law is not preempted. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | All employees working in Colorado; no size threshold. Employer includes state/local government but excludes federal government. Employee excludes railroad employees covered by federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. Qualifying multiemployer fund or bona fide CBA may satisfy the Act; a later CBA needs an express waiver and equivalent-or-more-generous paid leave (§§ 8-13.3-402(4)-(5), 8-13.3-403(1), 8-13.3-415). |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | At least 1 hour per 30 worked from employment start; use immediately as accrued, no probationary wait. Employer need not allow >48 hours earned or used per benefit year. Overtime-exempt employee deemed 40 hours/week unless normal week is shorter; nonexempt accrues on all hours worked including overtime (§ 8-13.3-403; 7 CCR 1103-7 R. 3.5.3(A)). |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Employer may frontload ≥48 hours at year start. Up to 48 unused accrued hours carry forward; ordinary use remains capped at 48/year. Carried hours count toward the next year's 48-hour provision: 40 carried permits 8 newly earned; 48 carried permits no new accrual until balance drops. PTO substitutes only with sufficient pay/hours, all HFWA purposes, and no stricter conditions. If a PHE is declared, supplement total available leave to 80 hours for 40+-hour workers or the greater scheduled/average 14-day hours for others (§§ 8-13.3-403, -405; R. 3.5.1, 3.5.4). |
| Qualifying uses and family | Employee illness/injury/condition preventing work, diagnosis/treatment, preventive care; family care; domestic-abuse, sexual-assault, or harassment medical, victim-service, counseling, relocation, and legal needs; bereavement/funeral/memorial/financial-legal matters; PHE-ordered workplace or child-care closure; unexpected weather/power/heat/water school/place-of-care closure; home evacuation. Family includes statutory immediate family, in-loco-parentis relationships, and a person for whom employee provides/arranges health or safety care (§§ 8-13.3-402(6), -404(1)). |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | Request may be oral, written, electronic, or another accepted means; expected duration when possible. Foreseeable leave: good-faith advance notice and reasonable scheduling effort; employer notice policy cannot justify denial. No replacement worker. Hourly increment unless employer permits smaller; if no written minimum, rules allow 0.1 hour. Documentation only for ≥4 consecutive scheduled workdays; employee writing suffices if no provider service or timely no-cost document. Any reasonable submission method; no signature/notary/format; due by return or earlier separation. Deficiency notice within 7 days plus ≥7 days to cure. No PHE documentation; health/safety details confidential (§§ 8-13.3-404, -405, -412; R. 3.5.3, 3.5.5-.6). |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | Same rate/salary and benefits as work; excludes overtime premiums, bonuses, holiday pay. Commission-only: ≥minimum wage; base+commission: base or minimum, greater. Include known shift differential; unknown rate uses 28-31-day lookback. Pay on regular wage schedule. No separation payout; rehire within 6 months restores unused unpaid-out balance; transfers/successors preserve it. Keep hours/accrued/used ≥2 years; on request provide available and used balance (monthly plus when leave need arises). Missing records presume violation unless employer proves compliance (§§ 8-13.3-402(8), -403(5),(7)-(8), -409; R. 3.5.2, 3.5.7). |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | Individual written notice plus conspicuous poster in English and each first language spoken by ≥5% of workforce; electronic notice for remote/no-workplace staff; willful notice/poster fine ≤$100. No denial, interference, retaliation, discrimination, attendance points, or waiver. Division complaint available; civil action within 2 years after first filing complaint or written demand and 14-day employer response. Relief includes back pay, employment/reinstatement/promotion/pay increase, lost wages, liquidated damages, reasonable costs and attorney fees; records and notice fines also apply (§§ 8-13.3-407 to -411, -416; § 8-5-104(2)). |
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Requirements one by one
Separate annual accrual, carryover, and the dormant emergency supplement
The ordinary HFWA bank earns one hour per 30 hours worked. Forty-eight hours
requires 1,440 hours worked. Accrual and use begin immediately, and the employer
may cap both ordinary annual earning and use at 48 hours.
Up to 48 unused hours carry forward, but carried hours count toward the next
benefit year's 48-hour provision. The 2026 rules illustrate the effect: 40
carried hours leave room for eight new hours, while a full 48-hour carryover
leaves no room for new accrual until the balance drops.
The separate public-health-emergency supplement is contingent, not a current
annual entitlement. On a qualifying declaration it raises total available leave
to 80 hours for an employee normally working at least 40 hours weekly, with a
14-day scheduled-or-average-hours formula for others. INFO #6B confirms that no
qualifying PHE is currently in effect.
Match the request to Colorado's expanded use list
The health and safety uses include the employee's own care and family care.
Colorado also covers bereavement and related financial or legal matters, a
family member's unexpected school or care closure caused by weather or utility
loss, and evacuation of the employee's residence after an unexpected event.
A request can be oral, written, electronic, or made by another method the
employer accepts. A foreseeable-leave policy may set reasonable procedures, but
noncompliance with that policy is not a basis to deny leave. The employee must
make a good-faith advance-notice and scheduling effort when the need is
foreseeable.
Apply the documentation sequence before denying leave
Documentation is available only after four or more consecutive days the
employee ordinarily would have worked, not four calendar days. If the employee
did not receive provider services or cannot obtain a provider document in a
reasonable time without added expense, the employee's own writing can suffice.
The employer cannot require a signature, notarization, or special format and
must accept a reasonable submission method. If documentation is deficient, the
employer must give notice within seven days and at least seven days to cure
before denying leave. PHE leave requires no documentation.
Pay and display the benefit under the current rules
Leave is paid on the regular wage schedule at the same rate and with the same
benefits as work, subject to the statute's exclusions and commission rules. A
known shift differential follows the missed shift. If the rate is unknown, the
rules use a 28-to-31-day lookback.
The employee can request the available and year-to-date used balance once per
month and again when a leave need arises. The employer must keep hours worked,
leave accrued, and leave used for at least two years.
What trips people up
Carryover is not a second 48-hour entitlement. Carried hours reduce how much
new leave must accrue until the employee has received 48 hours for that benefit
year.
The PHE provision remains in the statute but is currently dormant. It turns
on a qualifying declaration. Do not add 80 hours to the ordinary balance when
no qualifying PHE is in effect.
Four consecutive workdays is not four calendar days. Documentation cannot
be demanded merely because a weekend makes an absence span four calendar days.
A general PTO plan must preserve every HFWA condition. Sufficient hours are
not enough if the plan narrows uses, requires more proof, blocks carryover,
miscalculates pay, or allows attendance consequences.
Colorado preserves stronger law. Section 8-13.3-414 makes HFWA a minimum
and does not preempt another law or standard providing more leave or protection.
Common questions
Can a new employee use paid sick leave immediately?
Yes. Accrual starts with employment and leave may be used as it accrues. There
is no statutory probationary use period.
Does an employer have to frontload 48 hours?
No. The employer may use one-per-30 accrual or provide at least the required
amount at the beginning of the benefit year.
Can an employer require a doctor's note for two missed days?
No under HFWA's documentation trigger. Documentation may be required only for
four or more consecutive scheduled workdays, and an employee writing can
qualify when provider documentation is unavailable in the circumstances stated
by the rules.
Must unused HFWA leave be paid when employment ends?
No. Statutory sick leave need not be paid at separation. If the employee returns
within six months, the unused balance must be restored unless it was converted
to money at separation.
Statutes and sources
- Colo. Rev. Stat. § 8-13.3-402, § 8-13.3-403, § 8-13.3-404, § 8-13.3-405,
§§ 8-13.3-407 to -409, § 8-13.3-411, § 8-13.3-412, § 8-13.3-414, and §
8-13.3-415. Coverage, accrual, carryover, uses, PHE supplement, requests,
notice, records, retaliation, enforcement, confidentiality, stronger-law
preservation, and CBAs. Colorado Department of Labor and
Employment
(accessed July 22, 2026). - 7 Colo. Code Regs. 1103-7, rules 3.5.1-.8. Current benefit-year,
carryover, pay, PTO, request, documentation, balance, record, and CBA rules,
effective February 1, 2026. Colorado Department of Labor and
Employment
(accessed July 22, 2026). - Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics INFO #6B. Current
official guidance confirming that no qualifying PHE is in effect. Colorado
Department of Labor and
Employment
(accessed July 22, 2026). - Colo. Rev. Stat. § 8-5-104(2). Incorporated legal/equitable relief and
reasonable-cost and attorney-fee remedies. Colorado Department of Labor and
Employment,c.r.s%C2%A7_8-5-101,_et_seq.pdf)
(accessed July 22, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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