Colorado Wage Transparency Act: Postings, Notices, and Penalties

Colorado’s pay transparency law requires every employer with at least one Colorado employee to publish compensation ranges, benefits, and an application deadline in every job posting, tell current employees about openings on the day they go public, and disclose who was selected after a position is filled. The rules sit in Part 2 of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which took effect January 1, 2021. Violations carry administrative fines of $500 to $10,000 per offense, and employees can also sue for back pay and double damages under the Act’s equal-pay provisions.¹²

Which Employers Are Covered

The transparency rules reach every private company, nonprofit, and government agency with at least one employee working in Colorado. Out-of-state businesses that hire remote workers living in Colorado are covered too. There is one narrow carve-out: employers physically located entirely outside Colorado with fewer than fifteen remote Colorado employees only need to post notices for remote job opportunities, and that limited treatment runs through July 1, 2029.³

Employers cannot dodge the law by advertising remote jobs as open “anywhere except Colorado.” The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has said that if a remote position could be performed by someone in Colorado, the employer must include pay and benefits information. Excluding Colorado applicants invites investigations, cease-and-desist orders, and fines.¹

What Every Job Posting Must Include

Whether the posting is external or internal, three items must appear, disclosed in good faith:

The hourly rate or salary, or a range with a realistic floor and ceiling. Open-ended figures like “$50,000 and up” do not satisfy the requirement.
A general description of benefits such as health insurance, retirement contributions, and paid leave, together with any bonuses, commissions, or equity.
The date the application window is expected to close.

“Good faith” means the employer must have a reasonable basis for the figures at the time of posting.³ If the compensation structure changes during recruiting, the listing should be updated. Two mistakes come up often: a range that has no relationship to what the company actually plans to pay, and a range so wide it communicates nothing.

Telling Current Employees About Openings

Employers must make reasonable efforts to announce every job opportunity to all current employees on the same calendar day it is posted externally, or before a hiring decision is made, whichever comes first.³ A “job opportunity” includes any current or anticipated vacancy the employer is considering candidates for, or that the employer posts externally.⁴

Internal notifications must carry the same pay, benefits, and deadline information as the external posting. Existing employees should not find out about openings at their own company only after someone from outside has been hired.

Notifying Employees After a Position Is Filled

Within thirty calendar days after the selected candidate starts, the employer must notify employees who will regularly work with the new hire. “Regularly” covers people who collaborate or communicate about work at least monthly, and anyone in a reporting relationship with the new hire.³

The notice must include:

The selected candidate’s name
Their former job title, if they were already employed by the company
Their new job title
How other employees can express interest in similar positions in the future

The employer may withhold the name if disclosure would violate the person’s privacy rights under applicable law or risk their health or safety.³ The exception is narrow. Inconvenience is not a reason.

Career Progression Disclosures

Some employers use structured career progressions where employees move through defined levels within a role. When that system exists, the employer must disclose the requirements for advancement to all eligible employees, along with each position’s compensation, benefits, full-time or part-time status, duties, and path to further advancement.³ Written criteria are not enough on their own; employees must have a practical way to see them.

Records Employers Must Keep

Employers must keep job descriptions and the wage rate history for every employee, and preserve those records for the entire length of employment plus two additional years after the working relationship ends.⁵

The stakes go beyond fines. If an employee sues for unequal pay and the employer cannot produce the required records, a court may presume the missing records contained information favorable to the employee and instruct the jury accordingly.² That presumption alone can decide a case.

Fines and How Violations Are Counted

When the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics finds a violation, the director can order the employer to pay $500 to $10,000 per violation.² Counting matters. Leaving required information out of one job posting is one violation, regardless of how many platforms carried that listing. Failing to notify current employees about one promotional opportunity is a separate single violation.

Missing postings and missing internal notifications stack independently. An employer that ignores the law across dozens of openings can accumulate substantial fines quickly. As of early 2026, the Division has issued $841,500 in total fines across its enforcement history.¹

Lawsuits and Double Damages

Beyond the administrative process, employees can sue in district court under Part 1 of the Act for equal-pay violations. An employer found liable owes the pay difference plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the recovery, along with reasonable attorney fees and costs.⁶

An employer can avoid the liquidated damages piece by proving the violation was made in good faith with reasonable grounds for believing it was lawful. One way to show good faith is a thorough pay audit completed within two years before the lawsuit was filed, aimed specifically at identifying and correcting unlawful pay gaps.⁶ An audit is not an automatic shield, but it is the kind of proactive step courts look for. SB 23-105 extended the statute of limitations for wage discrimination claims from three years to six.

The Act also protects employees who discuss their pay, ask about coworkers’ compensation, or file complaints. Employers cannot prohibit wage discussions, require agreements restricting them, or punish employees for using their rights. Applicants who decline to share salary history are protected too.¹ Retaliation adds liability on top of any underlying violation.

How to File a Complaint

Employees or applicants who believe an employer has violated the transparency requirements can file a written complaint with the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. The complaint has to be filed within one year of learning about the violation and must include the employer’s name and address along with a detailed account of what happened.²

The Division has a standardized complaint form that can be submitted online, by mail, by fax, or in person, and complaints can be filed anonymously.¹ The mailing address is 633 17th Street, Denver, CO 80202.⁷

1
Department of Labor & Employment. Equal Pay for Equal Work Act
2
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-203 – Enforcement
3
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-201 – Transparency in Pay and Conditions of Employment
4
Colorado General Assembly. Colorado Senate Bill 23-105 – Concerning the Implementation of Measures to Ensure Equal Pay for Equal Work
5
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-202 – Record Keeping
6
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-104 – Employer Liability
7
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Transparency in Pay and Job Opportunities Complaint Form