Colorado Minimum Wage Laws: Rates, Exemptions, and Complaints

The Colorado minimum wage is $15.16 per hour in 2026 for most workers, and $12.14 per hour for tipped employees whose tips bring them up to the full rate.¹ Four cities and counties set their own rates higher than the state floor, and the statewide number adjusts every January with inflation. The federal minimum of $7.25 does not apply in practice; where state and federal rates differ, workers get the higher one.²

The 2026 Statewide Rate

$15.16 per hour took effect January 1, 2026.³ The Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics recalculates the figure annually based on the Consumer Price Index for Colorado, publishing it in what the state calls the PAY CALC Order. The CPI adjustment is a constitutional requirement: voters wrote the base $12.00 wage and the annual increases into Article XVIII, Section 15 of the state constitution.⁴

Cities and Counties With Higher Minimum Wages

Colorado permits local governments to set minimum wages above the state rate. As of January 1, 2026, four jurisdictions have done so:⁵

Denver: $19.29 per hour, with $16.27 for tipped employees⁶
Edgewater: $18.17 per hour, with $13.50 for tipped employees⁷
City of Boulder: $16.82 per hour, with $13.80 for tipped employees
Unincorporated Boulder County: $16.82 per hour, with $13.80 for tipped employees⁸

What matters is where the work happens, not where the employer is based. If you work a shift in Denver, Denver’s rate applies to that shift. Each local jurisdiction adjusts its own figure annually.

Tipped Workers and the Tip Credit

An employer can pay the $12.14 cash wage to a tipped worker only if that worker’s tips bring the total up to $15.16 per hour.¹ The $3.02 gap is called the tip credit, and it’s fixed in the state constitution rather than adjusted for inflation.⁴ If your tips fall short in any pay period, your employer owes you the difference.

This is a frequent source of wage complaints. Some employers treat the lower cash wage as the whole obligation, which is illegal. Managers and supervisors also cannot keep any share of other employees’ tips, including through a tip pool.⁹ The same tip-credit structure applies in the local jurisdictions: Denver’s tipped cash wage of $16.27 reflects the same $3.02 credit against the city’s higher minimum.

Who Is Exempt

Colorado’s wage rules cover private-sector work broadly, but certain roles are exempt if they meet both a salary floor and specific job-duty tests.¹⁰ For 2026, the exempt salary threshold is $1,111.23 per week, which comes to $57,784 annually.¹¹ Highly compensated employees have a separate threshold of $130,014. Both figures sit well above the federal exempt salary of $684 per week, so the Colorado number controls.

Meeting the salary alone is not enough. The main exempt categories also require that the work match the description:

Executive or supervisory employees must supervise at least two full-time employees, have hiring or firing authority, and spend at least half their time on direct supervision.
Administrative employees must directly serve an executive and regularly exercise independent judgment on significant matters.
Professional employees must work in a field requiring advanced specialized education or recognized creative talent.
Outside salespersons must spend at least 80% of the workweek on sales activities away from the employer’s premises.
Owners or proprietors must hold at least a 20% equity interest and be actively engaged in management.

A salaried title alone doesn’t make someone exempt. Both parts of the test have to be satisfied.

What Happens When an Employer Underpays

If an employer fails to pay all wages owed within 14 days of a written demand or a Division notice, penalties attach automatically.¹² For a non-willful violation, the penalty is double the unpaid wages or $1,000, whichever is greater. For a willful violation, it jumps to triple the unpaid wages or $3,000. Those penalties go to the worker, on top of the wages originally owed.

The state also collects its own fines: up to $50 per day from when wages were due, $250 for failing to respond to a Division notice, and up to $250 per employee per month for missing pay statements. If an employer still hasn’t paid 60 days after a Division order, the amounts increase by another 50% or $3,000, whichever is greater.

How to File a Wage Complaint

If you’ve been paid less than the minimum wage or shorted on hours, you can file with the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics.¹³ The sequence is straightforward:

Send your employer a written demand for the wages owed. If they don’t pay within 14 days, that triggers the penalty amounts above.
Fill out the Labor Standards Complaint Form on the CDLE website. You only need to complete the sections that apply to your situation.
Submit the form by mail, fax, or email with copies (not originals) of pay stubs, schedules, or any employment agreements.

You don’t have to wait out the 14-day demand period before filing; you can send the demand and file the complaint at the same time. The deadline to bring a wage claim is two years from when the wages were owed, or three years if the violation was willful. You can also file federally with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243; those complaints are confidential, and retaliation against workers who file is prohibited.¹⁴

The Required Workplace Poster

Every covered employer has to display the current COMPS Order poster where employees can read it during the workday, including the minimum wage and exemption salary figures from the PAY CALC Order.¹⁵ If posting isn’t practical, such as for a single worker in a private home or at an outdoor site, the employer has to give each worker a copy within the first month and make it available on request. An employer that fails to post loses eligibility for employee-specific credits and exemptions under the COMPS Order, including the tip credit.

1
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Adopted 2026 PAY CALC Order 7 CCR 1103-14
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act
3
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Labor Standards and Statistics
4
Colorado General Assembly. Colorado Constitution Article XVIII Section 15 – State Minimum Wage Rate
5
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Interpretive Notice and Formal Opinion 19 – Local Minimum Wages
6
City and County of Denver. Citywide Minimum Wage
7
City of Edgewater. Minimum Wage
8
Boulder County. Local Minimum Wage
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 15B – Managers and Supervisors Under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Tips
10
Cornell Law Institute. 7 CCR 1103-1-2 – Coverage and Exemptions
11
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Interpretive Notice and Formal Opinion 1 – Key Wage and Hour Rights and Responsibilities in Colorado
12
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Interpretive Notice and Formal Opinion 2B – Orders of Wages, Penalties, Fines, and Consequences for Non-Compliance
13
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Worker Complaints and Employer Responses
14
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
15
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Labor Standards Posters