What Is the Minimum Wage in Colorado Springs per Hour?

The minimum wage in Colorado Springs is $15.16 per hour as of January 1, 2026. The city has not adopted its own local wage, so the statewide rate set by Article XVIII, Section 15 of the Colorado Constitution applies to most workers inside city limits.¹ The federal minimum of $7.25 per hour has no practical effect here, because employers must pay whichever rate is higher.²

Tipped Employees Have a Lower Base Rate

If you earn tips, your employer can pay a base rate of $12.14 per hour in 2026. That is $3.02 below the standard minimum, a gap known as the tip credit, and the amount is fixed in the state constitution rather than adjusted each year.³

The protection built into the rule is simple: your base pay plus your tips must reach at least $15.16 per hour in every workweek. When tips fall short in a given week, your employer owes the difference in direct wages, and employers using the tip credit are required to keep detailed records of tip income.³ Colorado’s $12.14 tipped base is far above the federal tipped rate of $2.13 per hour.⁴

Who Is Not Covered

Some workers fall outside the minimum wage. The Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards Order (COMPS Order #40 for 2026) lists the categories.⁵ The most common exclusions are the white-collar exemptions for executive, administrative, and professional employees, which require both a duties test and a minimum salary. For 2026 that salary floor is $1,111.23 per week, or roughly $57,784 per year, and it rises each January 1 with inflation.⁶ A worker paid less than the threshold generally cannot be classified as exempt, no matter their title.

Other workers outside minimum wage coverage include:

Casual babysitters who work on an informal, irregular basis.
Workers on agricultural operations that meet certain size limitations.
Outside salespeople who spend most of their time away from the employer’s place of business making sales.
Resident property managers who live at the property they oversee.

Classifying a worker as exempt when they do not meet the salary or duties requirements exposes the employer to back pay for all hours worked below minimum wage, plus penalties.

Overtime Pay

Colorado’s overtime rules go further than federal law. You are owed one and a half times your regular rate for hours beyond 40 in a workweek, beyond 12 in a single workday, or beyond 12 consecutive hours, whichever calculation gives you the most pay.⁷ The daily thresholds have no federal counterpart.

Employers cannot average hours across weeks to avoid paying overtime. A 50-hour week is 10 hours of overtime even if the next week is only 30. Paid time off cannot be substituted for overtime pay.⁷

If Your Employer Is Paying Less

You can file a wage complaint with the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics through its online portal. The process involves creating an account, answering preliminary questions to confirm the Division has jurisdiction, and submitting your complaint with supporting documents such as pay stubs and time records.⁸

You can also go directly to court instead of using the Division, but not both at the same time. Wage claims under the Colorado Wage Act generally must be filed within two years of the date the wages were due. The Division’s investigation can take several months, so organized records of hours worked, pay received, and written communications with your employer strengthen your case.

You Cannot Be Punished for Complaining

The Colorado Wage Act prohibits retaliation against workers who raise wage concerns. Protected activity includes formal complaints filed with the Division, informal complaints to your employer, testimony in proceedings, and public advocacy on wage issues. You are protected whether or not your complaint turns out to be correct, as long as your belief was reasonable and not knowingly false.⁹

Federal law adds a second layer. The Fair Labor Standards Act makes it illegal to fire, discipline, reduce hours, demote, or take any other adverse action against a worker for filing a wage complaint or cooperating with an investigation.¹⁰ Retaliation claims can go to the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, the federal Wage and Hour Division, or court.

How the Rate Changes Each Year

Colorado’s minimum wage increases every January 1 based on inflation, using the Consumer Price Index for the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area published by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.¹¹ The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics calculates the new rate from July-through-June CPI data and announces it months before it takes effect.

The rate can only go up. If the CPI shows deflation, the minimum stays the same rather than dropping.¹¹ The tipped base rate and the exempt salary threshold adjust alongside it using the same measure.

1
Department of Labor & Employment. Labor Standards and Statistics
2
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
3
Colorado Department of Labor and Statistics. INFO 3C – Tips (Gratuities) and Tipped Employees Under Colorado Wage Law
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees
5
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Proposed 2026 COMPS Order 40
6
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Proposed 2026 PAY CALC Order
7
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO 1 – 2026 COMPS and PAYCALC Orders
8
Department of Labor & Employment. Worker Complaints and Employer Responses
9
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. INFO 5A – Retaliation Protections
10
U.S. Department of Labor. FAB 2022-2 – Protecting Workers from Retaliation
11
Colorado Department of Labor and Statistics. INFO 19 – Local Minimum Wages