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April 18, 2024
Effective April 1, 2024, Colorado amended its Wage Protection Rules in three significant ways. See 2023 CO Regulation Text 18275.
First, it amended its Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA) to expand the options for employers when calculating an employee’s pay rate for leave and the hours of paid sick leave an employee should receive based on their regular schedule.
Previous law required the HFWA pay rate to be calculated based upon an employee’s pay over the 30 calendar days prior to taking leave. The amendments now allow employers to calculate the HFWA pay rate on the employee’s pay over the 30 calendar days OR, at the employer’s option, any full pay period, or consecutive full pay periods or workweeks, totaling 28 to 31 days. If an employee has not yet worked the full 30-day duration (or other duration from 28 to 31 days), then the maximum number of available days within that duration shall be used to calculate the pay rate.
As to hours, previous law entitled an employee to paid HFWA leave equal to the number of hours the employer reasonably anticipated they would have worked during the period of the leave, based on: (1) their regular schedule of hours actually worked; (2) or, if leave is during a period the employee was anticipated to depart from a regular schedule, then hours anticipated for that period; (3) or, if the number of hours the employee would have worked during the period cannot be reasonably anticipated, then their average hours worked during their most recent 30 calendar days of work. The amendments now allow employers to calculate hours of leave under prong (3), above, based on their most recent 30 calendar days of work OR, at the employer’s option, the most recent of any full pay period, or consecutive full pay periods or workweeks, totaling 28 to 31 days. If an employee has not yet been employed for the full 30-day duration (or other duration from 28 to 31 days), their entitlement must be determined under prongs (1) or (2).
Second, the amendments expressly allow the Department of Labor and Employment’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics (Division) to invite or order parties to a wage complaint to meet to mediate or otherwise attempt to resolve the complaint at any stage of the applicable process.
Third, the amendments establish a Wage Theft Enforcement Fund. Specifically, when the Division or a hearing officer determines that an employer owes wages or compensation to an employee, if the employer fails to pay the determined amount within six months after the determination or the expiration of any applicable order staying or postponing the employer’s payment obligation, whichever is later, the Division may disburse the determined amount to the employee from the Wage Theft Enforcement Fund.
Employers: If you have not already done so, update your employment policies and practices to account for the changes to the HFWA. And always comply with your obligations to timely pay all wages and other compensation due to your employees.
*Special thanks to Nella Venella, our Paralegal, for her contributions to this article.
The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, Colorado, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
