Yes, sick time does roll over in Colorado. Under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, up to 48 hours of accrued, unused paid sick leave carry forward automatically into the next benefit year. You don’t file anything, ask for anything, or sign anything. The balance simply moves with you. What trips people up is what happens next: a rolled-over balance is not the same as extra time off, and it disappears entirely if you leave the job without using it.
How Rollover Works
When your employer’s benefit year ends, whatever unused sick leave sits on the books moves into the new year, capped at 48 hours. The rollover is a legal requirement, not a courtesy, and it applies whether your employer tracks accrual hour by hour or frontloads the full 48 hours at the start of each year.1Colorado Revised Statutes. Colorado Rev Stat 8-13.3-403 – Paid Sick Leave – Accrual – Carry Forward to Subsequent Year – Comparable Leave Provided by Employer – No Payment for Unused Leave
Two examples from the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics show how the math plays out. If you earned 48 hours during the year and used 8, you carry 40 hours forward and can accrue up to 8 more before hitting the 48-hour ceiling again. If you earned 48 and used none, the full 48 rolls over, but you won’t accrue any new hours until you dip below the cap by actually using some leave.2Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. INFO 6B – Paid Sick Leave Under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act
The design keeps balances from growing without limit while still giving workers a cushion at the start of a new year, before they’ve had time to earn fresh hours. Your benefit year start and end dates should be spelled out in your employer’s handbook or leave policy; that’s the moment rollover happens.
The Annual Usage Cap Is Separate From Your Balance
Seeing a big number on your pay stub doesn’t mean you can take that many hours off in a single year. Colorado employers are allowed to cap actual usage at 48 hours per benefit year, no matter how much you have banked. Someone who rolls over 40 hours and earns 8 more has 48 available and can use all of them. Someone whose more generous employer let them accumulate 60 hours can still be limited to 48 hours of use in any one year.3Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act eff July 15 2020
Balance and allowable usage are two different figures. Pay stubs often show total accrued balance and year-to-date use as separate lines, so check both, and confirm your employer’s specific usage cap in writing.
How You Earn the Hours in the First Place
Every employee working in Colorado starts accruing paid sick leave from day one. The rate is one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, and overtime hours count toward accrual. A full-time schedule of 40 hours a week produces about 1.33 hours of sick leave per week, which hits the 48-hour annual cap after roughly 36 weeks. Part-time workers accrue at the same rate but reach smaller totals because they work fewer hours.1Colorado Revised Statutes. Colorado Rev Stat 8-13.3-403 – Paid Sick Leave – Accrual – Carry Forward to Subsequent Year – Comparable Leave Provided by Employer – No Payment for Unused Leave
Employers can offer more than 48 hours a year if they want to. They can also frontload the full 48 hours at the beginning of the benefit year instead of tracking accrual hour by hour. Either approach satisfies the law, and either way the rollover rules still apply to whatever balance is left over when the year ends.2Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. INFO 6B – Paid Sick Leave Under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act
What Happens to Unused Sick Leave When You Leave
This is where rollover stops helping you. Colorado does not require employers to pay out unused sick leave when you quit, get fired, retire, or otherwise separate. The statute says so directly. Vacation pay is treated as earned wages and has to appear in a final paycheck, but accrued sick time is not. It expires on your last day unless your employment contract or a collective bargaining agreement says otherwise.1Colorado Revised Statutes. Colorado Rev Stat 8-13.3-403 – Paid Sick Leave – Accrual – Carry Forward to Subsequent Year – Comparable Leave Provided by Employer – No Payment for Unused Leave
One narrow exception exists: if an employer’s retaliation prevented you from using accrued leave, you may be able to recover those hours as a remedy through a complaint or lawsuit. Outside that situation, a 48-hour balance has zero cash value at separation. If you’re planning to leave a job and have banked sick time, using it for a qualifying reason before your last day is the only way to get any benefit from it.
If You’re Rehired Within Six Months
Leaving a job doesn’t always mean losing your balance permanently. If you return to the same employer within six months of separation, your previously accrued and unused sick leave has to be reinstated. The employer can’t reset you to zero as if you were a new hire.1Colorado Revised Statutes. Colorado Rev Stat 8-13.3-403 – Paid Sick Leave – Accrual – Carry Forward to Subsequent Year – Comparable Leave Provided by Employer – No Payment for Unused Leave
Past six months, the employer has no obligation to restore the old balance. Seasonal workers and anyone considering a return to a former employer should watch that six-month window carefully.
What Counts as a Qualifying Use
The list of reasons you can use HFWA sick leave is broader than a typical “call out sick” policy. Qualifying uses include:
- Personal illness or injury, including mental health conditions
- Preventive care such as checkups, screenings, or vaccinations for yourself or a family member
- Time off related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or criminal harassment, including medical care, counseling, legal proceedings, victim services, or relocation
- Caring for a family member who is ill, injured, or dealing with a health condition, or taking them to medical appointments
- Bereavement, including funerals, memorials, and handling financial or legal matters after a family member’s death
- Evacuation or care needs caused by severe weather, power outages, or other unexpected events, including when a family member’s school or care facility closes
- Closures of your workplace, your child’s school, or a daycare by a public official during a declared public health emergency
You don’t have to explain the specific details of your situation. Identifying which qualifying category applies is enough.
Retaliation for Using or Requesting Leave
Colorado law bars employers from retaliating against workers who request or take HFWA leave, tell a coworker about their rights, or file a complaint. Retaliation is not limited to firing. The state considers any action that might discourage a reasonable worker from exercising their rights to be unlawful, and that covers termination, constructive discharge, demotion, reducing hours or pay, moving someone to less desirable duties, suspension, formal discipline, hostile treatment, and threats of litigation or law enforcement reports against a worker asserting their rights.5Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO 5A – Retaliation Protections
Complaints go to the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. Penalties for non-willful violations run to double the wages owed or $1,000, whichever is greater. Willful violations triple that to three times the wages owed or $3,000, whichever is greater, and those figures can climb higher if the employer delays payment after a Division order.6Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO 2B – Orders of Wages, Penalties, Fines, and Consequences for Non-Compliance