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.

• • • Any employer with at least one employee in Colorado and employees who have earned at least $2,500 in wages within the state within the last 4 calendar quarters.
    • Businesses with existing paid family leave benefits can apply to use their private plans, provided they offer similar or superior benefits.
    • Self-employed employees may participate in FAMLI if they have opted into coverage and live and work in Colorado.

• • • • Caring for a new child;
      • Caring for an employee’s serious health condition;
      • Caring for a family member with a serious health condition;
      • Making arrangements for a family member’s military deployment; and
      • Obtaining services in response to intimate partner violence, stalking, sexual assault, or sexual abuse.

An employer must allow an employee to take leave to attend a judicial proceeding in response to a summons for jury duty. Regularly employed individuals must be paid their regular wages up to $50 per day, for the first 3 days of juror service.

An employer may choose to pay more. Any part-time or temporary worker who worked for the same employer for three months or more is considered to be regularly employed. An employee is not entitled to compensation for time spent:

• • • • • • Serving as a witness in a case;
          • Responding to a subpoena; or
          • Acting as a plaintiff or defendant in the courts.

Colorado employers with 50 or more employees must allow up to 3 working days of leave in any 12-month period, with or without pay, to employees who are victims of domestic abuse, stalking, sexual assault or any other crime related to domestic abuse. An employee is eligible for victim protection leave if he or she has been employed by the employer for 12 months or more and is a victim of:

• • • • • • Domestic abuse;
          • Stalking;
          • Sexual assault; or
          • Any other crime found by a court to include an act of domestic violence.

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

Any person who is a duly qualified member of the Colorado National Guard or the reserve forces of the United States who, in order to receive military training with the armed forces of the United States, not to exceed the equivalent of 3 weeks of work on the employee’s regular work schedule in any one calendar year, leaves a position other than a temporary position in the employ of an employer, and who gives evidence of the satisfactory completion of such training, and who is still qualified to perform the duties of such employee’s position, is entitled to be restored to their previous or a similar position in the same status, pay, and seniority. The employee shall be entitled to use any paid leave available to the person or to use unpaid leave for the period of absence for military training. 

A private employee who is a duly qualified member of the Colorado National Guard who leaves or who is absent from their employment, regardless of the length of such absence, in order to engage in active service for state purposes is entitled to the reemployment rights for members so long as such employee otherwise meets the requirements of section 28-3-609; and retains the right to the employee benefits described and is entitled to use any paid leave of absence available to the employee or to use unpaid leave.  

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.

• • • • • • • • • • Inability to work due to a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition.
                  • Seeking preventive medical care, including vaccination, or undergoing medical diagnosis, care, or treatment.
                  • Addressing needs arising from domestic abuse, sexual assault, or criminal harassment, including obtaining medical attention, mental health care, counseling, legal or other victim services, or relocation.
                  • Providing care for a family member requires the same types of care as mentioned above.
                  • Taking leave during a Public Health Emergency, when a public official has closed the employee’s workplace or the school or place of care for the employee’s child.
                  • Dealing with bereavement or attending to financial/legal needs following the death of a family member.
                  • Taking leave due to inclement weather, power/heat/water loss, or other unexpected events that necessitate the evacuation of their residence or caring for a family member whose school or place of care was closed.

An employee must use paid sick leave in hourly increments unless the employee’s employer allows paid sick leave to be taken in smaller increments of time.

Notice Requirement: An employer must permit the use of paid sick leave. Upon an employee’s request which can be communicated orally, in writing, electronically, or through any other acceptable means. The employee should include the anticipated duration of the absence. Employers may establish written policies outlining reasonable procedures for providing notice when the use of paid sick leave is foreseeable, but noncompliance with such policies should not result in the denial of paid sick leave.

An employer can request reasonable documentation for paid sick leave lasting 4 or more consecutive workdays, in such case an employee must provide a medical certificate indicating the cause of leave.

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 can carry forward unused accrued sick leave which may be used in a subsequent year, except that an employer is not required to allow the employee to use more than 48 hours of paid sick leave in a 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.

Paid Sick Leave in Case of Public Emergency

Duration of the Leave: In addition to providing paid sick leave, upon the declaration of a public health emergency, every employer in the state is required to supplement each employee’s existing accrued paid sick leave to ensure that the employee is eligible for the following amounts of paid sick leave as:

• • • • • • • • • • For employees with a standard workweek of 40 or more hours, a minimum of 80 hours;
                  • For employees with a standard workweek of fewer than 40 hours, a minimum of either the amount of time the employee is scheduled to work in a 14-day period or the average amount of time the employee actually works in a 14-day period, whichever is greater.

                    Usage of the Leave: An employer may count an employee’s unused accrued paid sick leave toward the supplemental paid sick leave. An employee may use paid sick leave under this section until four weeks after the official termination or suspension of the public health emergency.

Notice requirement: An employee shall notify the employee’s employer of the need for paid sick leave as soon as practicable when the need for paid sick leave is foreseeable and the employer’s place of business has not been closed.

An employer is prohibited from terminating any employee who fails to report to work or leaves work due to service as a volunteer firefighter responding to an emergency within the employee’s fire department response area. An eligible employee must present his or her employer with documentation from the fire chief of the employee’s volunteer firefighter status prior to taking any leave.

An employee must be allowed to leave work to respond to an emergency if:

• • • • • • The employer does not consider the employee to be essential to daily operations; and
          • The emergency is of a magnitude that requires all firefighters to respond.
          • The employee must provide the employer with the applicable fire department chief’s documentation of the time, date, and duration of the employee’s response.
    • The Leave time is unpaid. Unless otherwise agreed, a volunteer firefighter’s leave may not exceed 15 days per calendar year.

Employers must provide unpaid leave of up to 15 days per calendar year to employees who are qualified volunteers called into service by volunteer organizations for a disaster. An employee must provide proof of being a qualified volunteer, and he or she is eligible for leave only if called into service for a disaster.

Employers are not required to provide leave to more than 20% of their employees on any work day or to any employee designated as an essential employee.