Colorado Paid Sick Leave Laws and Requirements for 2026

Colorado’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), Colo. Rev. Stat. § 8-13.3-401 et seq., requires every employer in the state to give employees up to 48 hours of paid sick and safe leave per year. The law also requires up to 80 hours of additional paid leave whenever a public health emergency is declared.

This guide answers the questions employers ask most, then shows how the rules apply in common situations, with worked examples. It reflects the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics’ current guidance, INFO #6B (updated February 27, 2026), and the Wage Protection Rules that govern pay for leave.

“Colorado’s sick leave law covers every employer, even one with a single employee, and it treats denied leave as unpaid wages. That second point is the one employers tend to miss. A policy detail that looks minor on paper, like a doctor’s note requirement, can turn into a wage claim with penalties attached.” — Ryan Parker, Esq.

Common Questions About Colorado Paid Sick Leave

Who can take paid sick leave in Colorado?

Almost every employee in Colorado, including part-time, seasonal and temporary workers. The only exclusions are federal government employees and railroad employees covered by the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. State and local government employees are covered. Independent contractors aren’t employees, so HFWA doesn’t apply to them.

Which employers have to provide this leave?

Every employer with at least one employee in Colorado, regardless of industry or size. Before 2022, employers with 15 or fewer employees were exempt from the accrued leave requirement. That exemption has ended.

How much leave do employers need to provide?

Employees earn 1 hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year, starting on their first day of work. Non-exempt employees accrue leave on all hours worked, including overtime. Overtime-exempt employees accrue as if they work 40 hours a week, even if they work more. If an exempt employee’s normal workweek is under 40 hours, leave accrues based on that normal workweek.

The year is the calendar year unless the employer tells employees in writing, in advance, that it uses a different 12-month cycle, and the switch doesn’t reduce anyone’s leave.

What can Colorado paid sick leave be used for?

Employees can use accrued leave for:

• Their own mental or physical illness, injury or health condition that prevents them from working
• Preventive care, including vaccination, or medical diagnosis, care or treatment
• Needs arising from domestic abuse, sexual assault or criminal harassment, including medical care, counseling, legal or victim services, or relocation
• Caring for a family member who needs any of the care above
• A public official closing the employee’s workplace, or their child’s school or place of care, during a public health emergency
• Grieving, attending a funeral or memorial, or handling financial or legal matters after a family member’s death
• Evacuating their home, or caring for a family member whose school or place of care closed, because of inclement weather, loss of power, heat or water, or another unexpected event

The last two categories were added by S.B. 23-017, effective August 7, 2023. Family members include immediate family related by blood, adoption, marriage or civil union, plus anyone the employee is responsible for providing or arranging health or safety care for.

How does this relate to other types of leave?

HFWA leave is separate from Colorado’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program, which provides up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, plus 4 more weeks for pregnancy complications. The Division explains how the two programs interact in INFO #6C.

HFWA also includes a separate public health emergency entitlement of up to 80 hours of paid leave, available as soon as an emergency is declared. Employers can’t require documentation to take it. No emergency is in effect now, and the Division has said it will issue new guidance if one is declared.

An employer’s general PTO policy can satisfy HFWA without extra sick leave if it provides fully paid time off for all HFWA purposes, in at least the required amount, under conditions no stricter than HFWA’s. The employer must also explain this in writing before any leave request. If an employee then uses all of their PTO on vacation, the employer doesn’t owe more HFWA leave that year, unless a public health emergency is declared afterward.

“A combined PTO policy is often the simplest way to comply in Colorado, but only if it gives employees everything HFWA does. Add a stricter notice rule or a waiting period for new hires, and the policy no longer counts. At that point you may owe HFWA leave on top of the PTO employees have already used.” — Ryan Parker, Esq.

See our Colorado employee handbook requirements for how this fits into your written policies.

Can employers limit how many hours of sick leave employees use in a year?

Yes. Employers don’t have to let an employee use more than 48 hours of HFWA leave in a benefit year, even if the employee has more available because of carryover. Employers can always offer more.

Can employers provide all the leave at once instead of letting it accrue?

Yes. Employers can be more generous than the law, including by letting employees take leave before they earn it. Many give the full 48 hours on the first day of the year so they don’t have to track accrual.

The Division’s guidance doesn’t make an exception to the carryover rule for frontloaded leave, so plan to let unused hours roll over. In practice this rarely adds cost. Hours carried into a new year count toward that year’s 48-hour entitlement, so an employee who carries over 48 hours doesn’t earn another 48.

Do employers have to carry over unused leave?

Yes. Up to 48 hours of unused accrued leave rolls over to the next year. Carried-over hours count toward the next year’s 48, so an employee who carries over 40 hours can earn up to 8 more that year. Employers can still cap use at 48 hours per year, and they don’t have to pay out unused leave when employment ends.

How much do employers have to pay for sick leave?

Leave is paid at the same rate, and with the same benefits, as time worked. It’s paid on the regular payday and never below the applicable minimum wage. Under the Wage Protection Rules (7 CCR 1103-7, Rule 3.5.2), as updated effective February 1, 2026:

• Pay includes set hourly or salary rates, shift differentials, tip credits and commissions. It doesn’t need to include overtime, discretionary bonuses or holiday pay.
• Salaried employees whose pay isn’t reduced when they use leave aren’t owed anything extra. The same can apply to commission or piece-rate employees whose pay is earned over multiple days, weeks or months and isn’t reduced by the leave.
• Tipped employees paid below the full minimum wage must receive the full minimum wage for leave hours.
• Employees paid a base wage plus commission receive the higher of their base rate or the applicable minimum wage.
• If the shift would have earned a differential, or the rate is otherwise known in advance, that rate applies.
• If the rate can’t be determined in advance, use the employee’s pay over the 30 calendar days before the leave, excluding overtime premiums, bonuses and holiday pay. Employers may instead use any full pay period, or consecutive full pay periods or workweeks totaling 28 to 31 days.

Employees keep access to their benefits during leave, such as health benefits and 401(k) participation. Employers must keep making contributions tied to wages or employment status, but not contributions based only on hours worked.

What is the smallest amount of leave an employee can use?

Employers can require employees to use leave in one-hour increments, or allow smaller ones, as long as the rule is in writing. If the employer hasn’t set a minimum increment in writing, employees can use leave in increments of a tenth of an hour, or six minutes.

What notice do employers and employees need to provide?

Employers must do two things. They must give each employee written notice of their HFWA rights, and they must display the Division’s paid leave poster in a conspicuous, accessible place at each worksite. Handing out the latest INFO #6B or the poster, on paper or electronically, satisfies the notice requirement.

• New hires should receive the notice no later than their other onboarding documents.
• Current employees should receive updated notices and posters by the end of the calendar year after the Division publishes its annual updates.
• Remote employees, and employees of employers with no physical workspace, can receive the notice electronically. No poster is needed for them.
• Notices and posters must be provided in any language that is the first language of at least 5% of the workforce.

Employers can require employees to give notice as soon as practicable for foreseeable leave, such as a scheduled appointment, and can set reasonable notice procedures in a written policy. They can’t deny paid leave because an employee didn’t follow those procedures. Employees don’t have to mention HFWA when they ask for leave.

For more on posting rules, see our Colorado labor law poster requirements.

What verification can employers ask for?

Only for absences of four or more consecutive days the employee would normally have worked. For shorter absences, employers can’t require documentation at all. When documentation is allowed:

• It must be reasonable. A note from a health provider is enough. If the employee didn’t see a provider, or can’t get a note in time or without added cost, the employee’s own written statement is enough. For safety-related leave, a restraining order or police report also works.
• No format requirements. Employers can’t require documents to be signed, notarized or in a particular format, and must accept them by any reasonable method, including electronically.
• It comes after the leave. Documentation can’t be a condition of taking leave. Employers can request it once the employee returns, or leaves employment.
• Details stay private. Employers can’t require details about the health or safety condition. Anything they receive must be kept confidential, filed separately from personnel records, and not shared without the employee’s advance written consent.
• Problems get a cure period. If documentation falls short, the employer must notify the employee within seven days and give them at least seven days to fix it before denying pay.

Are employees’ jobs and benefits protected when they take this leave?

Yes. Employers can’t fire, discipline, demote, cut hours or otherwise retaliate against employees for requesting or using HFWA leave, and can’t count HFWA leave as an absence under an attendance policy. They can’t require employees to find a replacement, and can’t make new employees wait through a probationary period before using leave they’ve accrued. Any agreement that waives HFWA rights is void, even if the employee signs it.

Unused leave doesn’t have to be paid out at separation. If an employee is rehired within six months, previously accrued, unused leave must be reinstated.

What records do employers have to keep?

Employers must keep records for each employee for two years showing hours worked, leave accrued and leave used. Employees can ask for their current available and used balances once a month, and again whenever a need for leave comes up. Employers must answer in writing or electronically, using any reasonable system.

Because HFWA leave counts as wages under Colorado law, an employee who is denied leave can file a wage claim with the Division. Employers that fail to provide leave or notices can also face penalties and fines.

Quick Reference: Colorado Paid Sick Leave in Common Situations

Colorado Paid Sick Leave Examples

How fast leave accrues

A full-time, non-exempt employee working 40 hours a week reaches the 48-hour cap after 1,440 hours, or 36 weeks. An exempt manager working 55-hour weeks reaches it at the same point, because exempt employees accrue as if they work 40 hours. A part-time employee working 25 hours a week for 50 weeks works 1,250 hours and earns about 41.7 hours of leave, short of the cap.

How carryover works in year two

An employee earns 48 hours in 2026 and uses 16. The remaining 32 hours roll into 2027. Because carried-over hours count toward the year’s 48, the employee can earn up to 16 more hours in 2027. If the employee had used no leave in 2026, all 48 hours would roll over and they would earn nothing new in 2027. Either way, the employer can cap 2027 use at 48 hours.

How to calculate pay for leave

• Shift differential. An hourly employee earns $20 an hour plus a $2 night differential and calls in sick for a scheduled night shift. The employer pays $22 an hour for those leave hours.
• Variable schedule. A restaurant employee works as both a cook and a shift lead, assigned day to day, so the rate for the sick day isn’t known in advance. In the 30 calendar days before the leave, they earned $2,700 in regular wages and differentials for 135 hours, not counting overtime premiums or bonuses. The leave rate is $20 an hour.
• Base wage plus commission. A Denver retail associate earns $17 an hour plus commission and takes an 8-hour sick day. The employer owes the higher of the $17 base rate or Denver’s 2026 minimum wage of $19.29. That’s 8 hours at $19.29, or $154.32. Commissions don’t factor in.

Common Colorado Paid Sick Leave Mistakes

• Requiring a doctor’s note for any sick day. Documentation can be required only for four or more consecutive scheduled workdays, and an employee’s own written statement can be enough.
• Giving attendance points for short-notice sick calls. HFWA leave can’t count as an absence. The Division gives this as an example of a PTO policy that isn’t equivalent to HFWA.
• Making new hires wait. Employees can use leave as soon as they accrue it, so probationary periods aren’t allowed.
• Requiring employees to find their own coverage. Employers can’t require a replacement worker as a condition of leave.
• Restricting sick leave in a performance improvement plan. The Division says this violates HFWA even if the employee signs the plan.
• Leaving the minimum increment unwritten. Without a written rule, employees can use leave in six-minute increments.
• Paying multi-rate employees at the wrong rate. Leave is paid at the rate for the job or shift the employee would have worked, or by the 30-day lookback when that’s unknown.

“Employers usually get the 48 hours right. Where Colorado policies go wrong is everything around the leave: a doctor’s note requirement, attendance points for short-notice call-ins, or a call-in procedure that gets used to deny pay. Those rules often come from a multistate handbook that was never adjusted for Colorado, and any one of them can turn an otherwise compliant policy into a violation.” — Ryan Parker, Esq.

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Navigating Colorado paid sick leave requirements can be complex, especially with additional public health emergency provisions. SixFifty’s solutions streamline the process, ensuring your policies align with state requirements while reducing the administrative burden on your HR team. We’re here to keep you compliant—even as paid sick leave laws evolve.

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