AbsentEase
Colorado sick leave law & call-off rules
Colorado's Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA) applies to every employer and protects far more than sick days: bereavement, a school snow closure, a power outage at home — all of it is protected leave that can't take attendance points. Pair that with Nieto v. Clark's Market (accrued vacation is wages; use-it-or-lose-it is void) and an immediate final-pay rule at discharge, and Colorado demands the tightest policy hygiene west of Massachusetts. Here is what applies in 2026.
Colorado at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | Yes — HFWA: 1 per 30, 48 hours/year, every employer size |
|---|---|
| Covered reasons | Broadest in the region — illness, bereavement, snow days, power outages, evacuations |
| Attendance points on sick time | Prohibited — HFWA absences can't lead to discipline (C.R.S. 8-13.3-407) |
| Doctor's notes | Only at 4+ consecutive workdays, and only after the leave ends |
| Vacation at termination | Wages — payout mandatory, use-it-or-lose-it void (Nieto v. Clark's Market) |
| Final paycheck deadline | Fired: immediately (narrow payroll-unit exceptions) · Quit: next payday |
| Meal & rest breaks | Required — 30-minute meal over 5 hours, paid 10-minute rest per 4 hours |
Is paid sick leave required in Colorado?
Yes. HFWA (C.R.S. 8-13.3-401 et seq.) covers all private employers of any size: employees accrue 1 hour per 30 hours worked from day one, usable as accrued, with accrual and use each cappable at 48 hours per year. A dormant second obligation rides along: whenever any federal, state, or local public health emergency is declared, employers must immediately supplement full-time employees up to 80 hours of PHE leave. No Colorado city adds its own ordinance — HFWA is the uniform standard.
How Colorado's sick leave law works
| Accrual rate | 1 hour per 30 hours worked, all employer sizes; paid at the employee's same rate and benefits (2026 CDLE calculation rules) |
|---|---|
| Caps | 48 hours accrual and 48 hours use per year; front-loading 48 removes carryover |
| PHE supplement | Up to 80 hours (prorated for part-time) activates automatically upon any declared public health emergency |
| Covered uses | Illness, preventive care, safe leave — plus (since 2023) bereavement and absences from inclement weather, power/heat/water loss, or evacuation affecting the employee's home or a family member's school or care |
| Doctor's notes | Only for absences of 4+ consecutive workdays, may be provided after the leave ends, alternatives to medical documents must be accepted — and never for PHE leave |
| Notice | Leave can't be denied for lack of notice — good-faith effort for foreseeable use, as-soon-as-practicable per written policy otherwise |
The anti-retaliation rule: C.R.S. 8-13.3-407 bars adverse action for HFWA use, and CDLE's guidance treats counting protected absences under a no-fault attendance policy as exactly that — HFWA leave may not be counted as an absence that leads to discipline.
The federal floor that still applies
FMLA
Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles must give eligible employees (12+ months tenure, 1,250+ hours in the past year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition — their own or a close family member's. FMLA-protected absences can't accrue attendance points, and a call-off that mentions an ongoing condition can be notice enough to trigger your FMLA obligations, even if the employee never says "FMLA."
ADA
For employers with 15+ employees, the ADA can require modified attendance expectations or unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. An attendance policy applied "no exceptions" is exactly the kind that loses ADA cases — build an accommodation carve-out into the policy itself.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in Colorado
Colorado is at-will, and absences outside HFWA's protection can be disciplined normally. The trap is underestimating that protection's reach: "my kid's school is closed for the snowstorm," "my power's out," and "my uncle's funeral is Friday" are all protected HFWA leave — a points system tuned only to catch "sick" will misclassify them and generate retaliation exposure under C.R.S. 8-13.3-407. Documentation can't be demanded until day four, and never as a precondition. CDLE resolves complaints on the employer's records: what was reported, how it was classified, whether enforcement was even. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system that preserves each employee's stated reason verbatim is what makes the broad use-list manageable instead of dangerous.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Due immediately on discharge — or within 6 hours of payroll's next workday start (24 hours if the payroll unit is off-site) | C.R.S. 8-4-109(1)(a) |
| Employee quits | Next regular payday | C.R.S. 8-4-109(1)(b) |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Earned wages — must be paid at separation; use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture is void | Nieto v. Clark's Market; C.R.S. 8-4-101(14) |
| Unused HFWA sick leave | No payout required at separation | C.R.S. 8-13.3-403 |
Keeping sick leave in its own bank (not merged into PTO) keeps it off the mandatory-payout bill — the same design choice as California. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Colorado employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HFWA leave | Yes — paid | 48 hours/year plus the dormant 80-hour PHE supplement |
| Meal & rest breaks | Yes | Unpaid duty-free 30-minute meal over 5 consecutive hours; paid 10-minute rest per 4 hours (COMPS Order) |
| Voting | Yes — paid | Up to 2 hours unless the employee has 3+ consecutive off-duty hours while polls are open; from June 2026, applies any day voter service centers are open |
| Jury duty | Yes — paid | Regular wages up to $50/day for the first 3 days, including part-time and temporary staff |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Colorado National Guard protections |
The Colorado employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — call-off deadline and channel, points or steps, the no-call no-show rule, and carve-outs for legally protected absences — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Unemployment hearings and discrimination charges are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Enforce consistently. Uneven enforcement converts a lawful termination into a discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying points — sickness that could be state-protected sick time or FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.