Colorado Pay Transparency Law: Postings, Salary History, and Fines

Colorado’s pay transparency law requires every employer with at least one worker in the state to post the pay range, a general description of benefits, and an application deadline on every job opening, and to notify all current employees about internal opportunities before filling them. The rules live in Part 2 of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, and the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics can fine employers between $500 and $10,000 for each violation.¹

Which Employers Have to Comply

The statute reaches “the state, any political subdivision, and every other person employing a person in the state.”² There is no minimum headcount. A private company with a single Colorado employee is covered on the same terms as a state agency or a school district.

Remote work pulls out-of-state employers in. If a company based anywhere in the country hires someone who performs the work from Colorado, that company is employing a person in the state and owes full compliance. One narrow carve-out runs through July 1, 2029: an employer physically located entirely outside Colorado with fewer than fifteen employees working remotely in the state only has to post notices for the remote opportunities themselves, not for every opening across the company.³ Cross either threshold and the full rules apply.

What a Compliant Job Posting Must Include

Every posting, whether external, internal, or for a remote role, has to carry three categories of information in good faith.³

Compensation

The posting must state the hourly rate or salary, or a range running from the lowest to the highest amount the employer genuinely expects to pay. Open-ended figures like “$30,000 and up” or “up to $60,000” do not comply. If bonuses, commissions, or tips are part of the package, the posting needs a general description of them, though exact dollar estimates are not required.

Benefits

A general description of health care, retirement benefits, paid time off, and any other tax-reportable benefits has to appear. Minor perks such as gym access or employee discounts can be left out. Premium costs and coverage specifics are not required; writing “health insurance” is enough. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has said employers cannot lean on vague filler like “etc.” or “and more” to sidestep listing what is actually offered.⁴

Application Deadline

Postings have to estimate when applications close. “Open until filled” does not satisfy the rule. For positions that stay posted continuously because of ongoing turnover, the employer must say so by disclosing that applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Notifying Current Employees About Internal Openings

When a job opportunity exists, the employer has to tell all current employees about it on the same calendar day and before anyone is selected to fill it.³ A job opportunity means any vacancy or newly created position that would be a promotion for at least one current employee. The internal notice carries the same compensation, benefits, and deadline requirements as an external posting.

After the role is filled, a second disclosure kicks in. Within 30 calendar days of the new hire’s start, the employer must share four items with the employees who will regularly work with the selected candidate: the candidate’s name, their former job title if they were already with the company, their new title, and information on how other employees can express interest in similar roles going forward.³ A narrow exception applies when disclosing the selected candidate’s identity would violate their privacy rights or put their health or safety at risk.

When Posting Is Not Required

Two kinds of advancement sit outside the standard posting rules.

A career progression is a regular or automatic advancement from one position to another based on time in a role or other objective metrics, such as an associate moving to senior associate after two years of satisfactory reviews. Because no competitive selection takes place, career progressions do not count as job opportunities. The employer still has to disclose the progression details to all eligible employees: what each position pays, its benefits, full-time or part-time status, duties, and what the employee needs to do to advance.⁴ This information should go out shortly after an employee begins a position within the progression.

Career development is different. The employee’s own role has organically grown past its original duties, and the employer updates their title or pay to reflect the work they are already doing. These promotions are exempt from posting requirements entirely.⁴ The line matters: if the employee is being slotted into a vacancy that exists as its own separate position, that is a competitive job opportunity and triggers the full posting rules. Career development applies only when the promotion recognizes work the employee has already been doing.

The Salary History Ban

Transparency on the posting side is paired with a prohibition on digging into applicants’ past pay. Employers cannot ask job applicants about their previous wages or use prior wage history to set a new hire’s compensation, and they cannot penalize an applicant who declines to share that information.⁵ The posted range, not the candidate’s last paycheck, has to anchor the offer.

Fines and How Violations Are Counted

The Director of the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics can impose a fine of $500 to $10,000 for each violation of the transparency requirements.¹ Failing to notify employees about one promotional opportunity counts as one violation. Failing to include the required information in postings for one job opening also counts as one violation, no matter how many places the job was advertised.

Those fines are independent of any damages a worker might recover in a separate pay discrimination lawsuit. An employee can pursue a transparency complaint and an equal pay claim at the same time.

How to File a Complaint

Workers who believe an employer broke the transparency or internal posting rules can file a written complaint with the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. The deadline is one year from the date you learned about the violation.¹ The Division takes complaints through its online portal, by mail, by fax, or in person, and submissions can be anonymous.⁶

Include the employer’s name and address along with a detailed account of what happened. There is no filing fee. The Division investigates and, if it finds a violation, can order the applicable fines.

Colorado law also protects workers who use these rights. An employer cannot fire, discipline, threaten, or otherwise retaliate against an employee who asks about, discloses, or discusses their own pay, and any agreement requiring an employee to keep wage information secret is unenforceable.⁵ The same shield covers workers who file complaints, participate in investigations, or speak up for coworkers.⁶

1
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-203 – Enforcement
2
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-101 – Definitions
3
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-201 – Transparency in Pay and Job Opportunities
4
Department of Labor & Employment. INFO 9A – Transparency in Pay and Job Opportunities
5
Justia. Colorado Code 8-5-102 – Employer Prohibited From Discriminating
6
Department of Labor & Employment. Equal Pay for Equal Work Act