Colorado employment laws

Colorado employers must pay a discharged employee immediately — or, if the payroll unit is off-site or closed, within six hours of its next workday opening (24 hours if off-site). Employees who quit are paid on the next regular payday.

Colorado's Healthy Families and Workplaces Act requires all employers to provide accrued paid leave — one hour per 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year — plus a supplemental 80-hour bank during declared public health emergencies.

Colorado requires payout of all earned, unused vacation at separation — policies cannot forfeit vacation that has already been earned, per the CDLE and Nieto v. Clark's Market.