Employment · Colorado
the short answer
Colorado counts three ways at once and pays you whichever comes out highest: over 40 hours in a week, over 12 hours in a day, or over 12 hours worked back to back even if they run across midnight into the next day. That last one exists almost nowhere else. Two weeks may never be averaged together to wipe out an overtime week.
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
everywhere in the u.s.
in this state
governing statute
7 CCR 1103-1 (COMPS Order #40), Rule 4.1.1
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penalty
Send a written demand for payment of wages first. If the employer has not paid within 14 days, you may recover the greater of 200% of the wages owed or $1,000 on top of the wages themselves, through the Division's complaint process or in court.
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free route
The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics takes a Labor Standards Complaint online or on paper, and it investigates unpaid overtime by name. It will not hear a claim for more than $13,000 — though you may file for part of what you are owed to stay under that — and it cannot order wages earned more than two years ago unless the employer's conduct was willful, which stretches it to three.
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which court
Small claims court
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small claims limit
$7,500
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exceptions: Defamation, eviction and anything brought on behalf of a class are outside this court at any amount.
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
also
The 12-consecutive-hours rule ignores where your workday is supposed to start and end, so a shift that runs past midnight can earn overtime in a week that never reaches 40 hours. Meal periods come out of the 12, but only if they were real breaks under the Order's own meal-period rule.
source ↗Not yet checked against the statute.
your situation
Everything above is the law as it reaches everyone in Colorado. What it means for you turns on facts only you have. Tell us what happened and we'll ask the same questions a lawyer would — about 90 seconds, free, and anonymous.
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