Colorado Paid Sick Leave Law: Accrual, Uses, and HFWA Rules

Colorado’s paid sick leave law, formally the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), requires every employer in the state to provide paid sick leave. Employees earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year, and can use that time for their own health, a family member’s care, bereavement, safety needs tied to domestic abuse or assault, and certain emergencies. The law reaches part-time, seasonal, and temporary workers, and it starts on day one.

Who Is Covered

The HFWA applies to all Colorado employers regardless of size or industry, including public agencies, private businesses, and nonprofits. Full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees all qualify.¹

Two narrow groups fall outside the law: federal government employees and certain railroad employees covered by the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. State and local government workers are covered.¹ Independent contractors are not employees under Colorado wage law, so the HFWA does not cover them, but misclassifying an employee as a contractor does not eliminate the obligation.

How Sick Leave Accrues

Employees earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, starting on their first day. The annual cap is 48 hours, though employers can set a higher limit.²

Instead of tracking hour by hour, employers can front-load the full 48 hours at the start of the benefit year. That satisfies the law as long as the total meets or exceeds what the employee would have accrued.³

Carryover and Payout at Separation

Up to 48 hours of unused sick leave carries over into the next year. An employer does not have to allow use of more than 48 hours in any single year, even when carryover pushes the balance higher.⁴

One point often surprises employees: unused sick leave does not have to be paid out when someone quits, retires, or is fired. The exception is when retaliation prevented the employee from using leave they had earned, in which case the leave becomes a recoverable remedy.³

What You Can Use Sick Leave For

The qualifying reasons under the HFWA are broader than under many other leave laws, and leave is available as soon as it’s earned with no waiting period:

Your own physical or mental illness, injury, or health condition, including diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care.
Caring for a family member with an illness, injury, or health condition, or helping them get medical or preventive care.
Grieving, attending funeral services, or handling financial and legal matters after a family member’s death.
Seeking medical attention, counseling, victim services, legal help, or relocation because of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or harassment affecting you or a family member.
Caring for a child or family member whose school or care facility closed due to a public health emergency, severe weather, power outage, or other unexpected event.
Needing to leave your home because of severe weather, utility failure, or another unexpected emergency.

That evacuation category is one many Colorado workers don’t realize applies to them. A wildfire evacuation order that forces you from your home is a covered use of accrued sick leave.⁵

Who Counts as a Family Member

The HFWA defines family member to include a spouse, parent, child, or sibling, but it also reaches any person for whom the employee is responsible for providing or arranging health- or safety-related care.⁶ An elderly neighbor or close friend the employee looks after can qualify. The employee decides who fits based on actual caregiving responsibilities.

Notice and Documentation Rules

For foreseeable absences like scheduled medical appointments, an employer can require advance notice as soon as practicable. A written policy setting reasonable procedures is allowed, but the employer cannot deny leave solely because the employee didn’t follow every step of that policy.¹ For unforeseeable absences, no advance notice is required.

Documentation can only be requested when an absence covers four or more consecutive scheduled workdays, not calendar days. Even then:

For health-related leave, a provider’s note works, but if the employee didn’t see a provider or can’t obtain one without added cost or delay, a written statement from the employee is enough.
For safety-related leave, the same rules apply, and a restraining order or police report is also acceptable if applicable.
Employers cannot demand a signature, notarization, or specific format, and must accept electronic submissions.
Employers cannot ask for the underlying health or safety details, and any information received must be kept confidential and separate from other personnel files.

Documentation cannot be required before leave is taken. If an employer finds the documentation deficient, it must notify the employee within seven days and give at least seven more days to correct it.⁷

What Employers Must Do

Employers must track accrual and usage for each employee, provide individual written notices about HFWA rights, and display a workplace poster. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment publishes template posters that satisfy the requirement.¹

An employer that willfully fails to provide the required written notices faces civil fines of up to $100 per violation, and each affected employee counts as a separate violation.⁸ For an employer with a large workforce, that adds up quickly.

A separate sick leave bank is not required if the employer already has a paid time off policy that meets or exceeds the HFWA. The existing PTO plan works as long as it provides at least 48 hours per year, covers all the same qualifying uses, and the terms are given to employees in writing.²

Public Health Emergency Leave

When a public health emergency is declared, the HFWA opens a separate, supplemental block of paid leave on top of any accrued sick leave. This provision was heavily used during COVID-19 and remains available for any future declared emergency.

The supplemental amount depends on the employee’s schedule:

Employees who normally work 40 or more hours per week get at least 80 hours.
Employees who normally work fewer than 40 hours per week get the greater of their scheduled hours in a 14-day period or their average hours actually worked in a 14-day period.

The leave is available immediately when the emergency is declared and remains usable until four weeks after it officially ends.⁹ Qualifying uses include isolating with symptoms or a diagnosis of the illness causing the emergency, getting related medical care, caring for an affected family member, and caring for a child whose school or childcare closed because of the emergency. Unlike ordinary accrued leave, employers cannot require documentation for public health emergency leave.⁷

How the HFWA Fits with Federal FMLA

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave per year for qualifying medical and family reasons. It applies only to employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles, and only to employees with at least 12 months and 1,250 hours of service.¹⁰ The HFWA covers every employer regardless of size, and every employee from day one.

When both laws apply, the leave can run concurrently. An employer may require an employee to use HFWA-accrued paid sick leave during an FMLA absence, making the time off both FMLA-protected and paid.¹¹ At smaller employers where FMLA does not reach, the HFWA still guarantees paid time off, but it does not provide the same extended job protection FMLA offers for longer absences.

Retaliation Is Prohibited

An employer cannot retaliate against an employee for using or trying to use sick leave, filing a complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or telling a coworker about their rights. Counting a lawful sick leave absence against an employee in an attendance-based discipline system is itself a violation.¹²

The protection extends to anyone acting in good faith, even if the underlying complaint turns out to be mistaken. If an investigation finds that retaliation cost an employee a job or pay, the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics can order reinstatement, lost wages, or both, and each affected employee is a separate violation for purposes of penalties.¹²

How to File a Complaint

The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics within the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment investigates complaints about denied sick leave and retaliation. The Division is required to investigate every claim of denied sick leave, and it may investigate retaliation claims at its discretion.¹²

Employees file by submitting a Labor Standards Complaint Form through the CDLE. One important limit: the Division only handles wage claims of $7,500 or less. A larger claim can still be filed with the Division for a portion up to that cap, but anything above $7,500 has to go to court.¹³ Because HFWA leave counts as wages under Colorado law, a denied sick leave claim follows the same complaint process as any other unpaid wage claim.¹⁴

Before filing, an employee can send the employer a written demand for the unpaid wages. If the employer doesn’t pay within 14 days, additional penalties beyond the original amount may be available through the Division or in court.¹⁴ The written demand is optional, but it can strengthen a claim and sometimes resolves the issue without a formal proceeding.

1
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Interpretive Notice and Formal Opinion 6B – Paid Sick Leave under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act
2
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Revised Statutes 8-13.3-403 – Paid Sick Leave Accrual
3
FindLaw. Colorado Code 8-13.3-403 – Paid Sick Leave Accrual Carry Forward
4
Legal Information Institute. 7 CCR 1103-7-3 – Filing a Wage Complaint – Section: Yearly Basis for HFWA Leave
5
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Revised Statutes 8-13.3-404 – Use of Paid Sick Leave
6
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Revised Statutes 8-13.3-402 – Definitions
7
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Interpretive Notice and Formal Opinion 6B – Paid Sick Leave under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act
8
Justia. Colorado Code 8-13.3-408 – Notice to Employees Penalty Rules
9
Justia. Colorado Code 8-13.3-405 – Additional Paid Sick Leave During a Public Health Emergency
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act
12
Justia. Colorado Code 8-13.3-407 – Employee Rights Protected Retaliation Prohibited
13
Department of Labor and Employment. Division Authority and Coverage – Section: Unpaid Wages
14
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Worker Complaints and Employer Responses