Colorado PTO Laws: Sick Leave, Vacation Pay, and FAMLI

Colorado’s paid time off laws give workers four distinct entitlements: paid sick leave that every employer must provide, vacation pay that is treated as earned wages, a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program called FAMLI, and paid time for jury service and voting. The rules operate independently of each other, so you can qualify for more than one at the same time, and employers face real financial penalties for ignoring them.

Paid Sick Leave Every Employer Must Provide

Under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, every Colorado employer must provide paid sick leave regardless of company size. You earn one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year unless your employer sets a higher cap.¹ Full-time, part-time, and temporary workers all accrue at the same rate. Unused hours carry over, though the employer can still cap annual use at 48.

What Counts as a Valid Use

Sick leave covers more than being sick. You can use it for your own physical or mental illness, a medical diagnosis or treatment, or preventive care like a flu shot. The same uses apply when a family member needs that care.²

It also covers absences tied to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or harassment, including safety planning, legal help, or counseling for you or a family member. If a public official closes your child’s school or daycare because of a public health emergency, that qualifies too.² Bereavement is another approved use. You can take time to grieve, attend a funeral, or handle financial and legal matters after a family member’s death.³ Colorado does not require separate bereavement leave; it folds that need into the same 48-hour pool.

When Your Employer Can Ask for Documentation

Your employer can only request documentation if you miss four or more consecutive scheduled workdays, and even then it must be reasonable.³ A note from a health care provider works. If you did not see one or cannot get a note without extra cost, a written statement in your own words satisfies the requirement. For safety-related absences, a restraining order or police report also works.⁴

Employers cannot demand documentation before you take leave, cannot require notarized documents, and cannot ask for details about your medical condition. Any health or safety information they do receive must be kept in a confidential file separate from your regular personnel records.⁴

Extra Leave During a Public Health Emergency

When a federal, state, or local authority declares a public health emergency, your employer must provide supplemental paid sick leave on top of what you have already accrued. Full-time employees (40 or more hours per week) get up to 80 hours of total emergency leave. Part-time workers get the greater of their scheduled hours or actual average hours over a 14-day period.⁵ Employers can count unused accrued sick hours toward that total but must make up the difference. Your right to use emergency leave continues until four weeks after the emergency ends, and your employer cannot require documentation to prove you qualify.

Vacation Pay as Earned Wages

Colorado does not require employers to offer vacation. Once an employer does, the Colorado Wage Claim Act treats earned vacation pay as wages, so it gets the same legal protection as your paycheck.⁶ The Colorado Supreme Court confirmed this in Nieto v. Clark’s Market, holding that once vacation pay is earned, it cannot be forfeited and any contract term saying otherwise is void.⁷ Use-it-or-lose-it policies no longer survive in Colorado. Vacation you have earned belongs to you.

What You Are Owed When You Leave a Job

All earned but unused vacation must be included in your final paycheck. The deadline depends on how the job ends. If you are fired, payment is generally due immediately; if the accounting unit is closed when you are terminated, payment is due within six hours of its next business day. If you resign, payment is due by the next regular payday.⁶

Sick leave is different. The HFWA says employers do not owe anything for unused sick hours at separation unless you can show your employer blocked you from using the leave through retaliation.¹

Penalties When an Employer Shorts You

If your employer fails to pay earned wages (including vacation) after receiving a written demand and 14 days to respond, the penalty is automatic. The employer owes the unpaid amount plus double that amount, or $1,000, whichever is greater. If you can show the failure was willful, the penalty rises to triple the unpaid wages or $3,000, whichever is greater.⁸ A prior judgment against the same employer for wage theft in the past five years can be used as evidence of willfulness, and a second offense of the same type within five years is automatically considered willful.

FAMLI: Paid Leave for Bigger Life Events

FAMLI is a statewide insurance program that funds paid leave for extended absences the 48-hour sick leave bank was never designed to handle. Benefits come from the state FAMLI Division, not your employer’s payroll, so your employer does not control whether you get paid.

Who Qualifies and What It Costs

The program is funded through a payroll premium set at 0.88% of wages in 2026, split evenly between employer and employee at 0.44% each.⁹ You become eligible to file a claim after earning at least $2,500 in wages in Colorado during the five calendar quarters before your leave begins.¹⁰ That threshold is low enough to cover most part-time and seasonal workers. Self-employed workers, S-Corp owners, and employees of local governments that opted out can voluntarily opt in and pay premiums.¹¹

How Much You Get and for How Long

Benefits are calculated on a sliding scale tied to the statewide average weekly wage, which is $1,534.94 for 2025–2026. The first $767.47 of your average weekly wage (half the state average) is replaced at 90%. Anything above that is replaced at 50%, up to a maximum weekly benefit of $1,381.45.¹² Lower earners replace a higher share of their income by design. Someone earning $700 per week would receive about $630 in weekly benefits.

Eligible workers can take up to 12 weeks of FAMLI leave per year. Qualifying reasons include bonding with a new child, caring for a family member with a serious health condition, recovering from your own serious health condition, or handling needs tied to a family member’s military deployment.¹³ If you have complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, your total available leave extends to 16 weeks. A health care provider must verify the complication, and you file a separate claim listing your own serious health condition as the reason.¹⁴

How FAMLI Lines Up with Federal FMLA

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year, but only applies to employers with 50 or more employees and workers with at least 1,250 hours in the past year. FAMLI is broader on every front: all employer sizes, a much lower earnings threshold, and actual pay while you are off.

When both laws cover you, an employer can require that FMLA and FAMLI run at the same time. Federal FMLA allows you to use accrued paid leave during what would otherwise be unpaid FMLA time, and when paid leave is used for an FMLA-qualifying reason, it counts as FMLA-protected leave.¹⁵ So if you qualify for both, you do not get 24 weeks. You get 12 weeks (or 16 for pregnancy complications) that satisfy both. Where FAMLI really matters is for workers outside federal FMLA coverage: smaller employers or shorter tenure. You still get paid FAMLI leave.¹⁰

How FAMLI Benefits Are Taxed

FAMLI benefits are not wages, so your employer does not report them on your W-2 or withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes. They are not tax-free, though. IRS Revenue Ruling 2025-4 set the federal tax treatment, and the answer depends on which type of leave you took.

Family leave benefits (bonding with a new child, caring for a sick relative) are fully taxable as federal income. The state issues a Form 1099 if your benefits top $600 in a year.¹⁶

Medical leave benefits, taken for your own serious health condition, split in two. The portion funded by your own employee contributions is generally tax-free. The portion funded by your employer’s contributions is taxable.¹⁶ Because Colorado splits the 0.88% premium evenly, roughly half of your medical leave benefits would be excludable and half would not. If your employer voluntarily picks up your share of the premium, that amount is treated as taxable wages to you. The IRS has provided transitional penalty relief through 2026, but the underlying tax obligations still apply.

Retaliation Is Illegal

Your employer cannot fire, demote, suspend, cut your hours, or take any other adverse action because you requested or used paid sick leave. They also cannot count paid sick leave as an absence that triggers discipline, even under a no-fault attendance policy.¹⁷ Protection extends beyond your own use. Telling a coworker about their HFWA rights, filing a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, or cooperating with an investigation are all shielded. Any agreement in which you waive these rights is void.¹³

Paid Jury Duty and Voting Leave

Colorado requires paid time off for two civic duties. For jury service, employers must pay your regular wages up to $50 per day for the first three days of service. This applies to all regularly employed workers, including part-time and temporary employees whose hours can be established by a schedule or practice over the prior three months.¹⁸

For voting, you get up to two hours of paid leave on Election Day, but only if your work schedule leaves you fewer than three consecutive non-working hours while polls are open. Arrange the time with your employer in advance. The employer can specify when during your shift you take it, though you can ask for it at the start or end of your shift.¹⁹ No federal law requires paid voting leave, so this exists entirely as a Colorado protection.

1
Justia. Colorado Code 8-13.3-403 – Paid Sick Leave – Accrual – Carry Forward to Subsequent Year
2
Colorado General Assembly. SB20-205 Sick Leave For Employees
3
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act
4
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO 6B – Employer and Employee Rights and Obligations Under the HFWA
5
Justia. Colorado Code 8-13.3-405 – Additional Paid Sick Leave During a Public Health Emergency
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Colorado General Assembly. Colorado Code 8-4-101 – Definitions
7
Justia. Nieto v. Clark’s Market, Inc. – 2021 CO 48
8
Justia. Colorado Code 8-4-109 – Penalty and Other Relief for Violations
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Premium and Benefits Calculator
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). FAMLI and FMLA
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Opting in to FAMLI
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Rules and Guidance
13
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO 6B – Rights and Obligations Under HFWA
14
Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Parental (Bonding) Leave
15
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
16
Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 2025-4
17
FindLaw. Colorado Code 8-13.3-407
18
Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Revised Statutes 13-71-126 – Compensation of Employed Jurors During First Three Days of Service
19
FindLaw. Colorado Code 1-7-102 – Employees Entitled to Vote