Colorado Paid Sick Leave: The Healthy Families and Workplaces Act Explained

Do part-time team members earn sick time? Can you ask for a doctor's note? Does the PTO policy you already have count? If you run a small business in Colorado, these are fair questions, and the answers all come from one state law: Colorado's Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, usually shortened to HFWA.

I wrote this guide for owners and managers, from the employer's side of the desk, and I've based it on the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment's official guidance, INFO #6B, which was last updated on February 27, 2026.

Who the HFWA covers

Every Colorado employer is covered. The state labor department's guidance says the law applies to all employers of any employees in Colorado, regardless of industry or size, and it covers part-time, seasonal and temporary team members as well as full-time ones. The only people left out are federal government employees and some railroad employees.

If you remember hearing that small businesses were exempt, that was true for a while. Before 2022, employers with 15 or fewer employees didn't have to provide accrued sick leave. That exemption has ended, which means a business with its very first hire owes paid sick leave on the same terms as a much larger one.

The day-to-day detail is where businesses differ. How your team members are paid, whether some of them are salaried, whether anyone works remotely and whether you already offer PTO all change how you track and pay sick leave, and I cover each one below.

FAMLI, Colorado's state-run paid family and medical leave program, is a separate law, and it's one place where headcount does change what you owe. According to the FAMLI Division, employers with fewer than 10 employees aren't required to pay the employer share of the premium, although they still withhold their team members' share and report wages every quarter. For how HFWA fits with the other Colorado rules that apply to your business, see my Colorado employment law guide.

Accrual and carryover

Under HFWA, team members earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, up to 48 hours a year, starting on their first day. That's the minimum, and you're welcome to offer more. The rule works out a little differently for each kind of team member:

• Overtime-exempt team members: they accrue as if they work 40 hours a week, even in weeks they work more.
• Non-exempt team members: they accrue on every hour worked, including overtime hours.
• Part-time team members: they accrue at the same rate on the hours they actually work. In the state's own example, someone working 20 hours a week reaches 32 hours of leave by the end of the year.
• New hires: accrual starts on day one, and leave can be used as soon as it's earned, which rules out a probationary waiting period before sick leave can be used.

The 48-hour cap applies to a benefit year. By default that's the calendar year, unless you tell your team in writing, ahead of time, that you'll use a different annual cycle, and the change doesn't reduce anyone's leave.

Carryover

Unused sick leave carries over. Up to 48 hours of earned, unused leave rolls into the next year, although you don't have to let anyone use more than 48 hours in a single year. In the state's example, a team member who earns 48 hours and uses 8 carries 40 hours into the next year and can earn up to 8 more, while someone who uses none carries all 48 forward and doesn't earn more that year.

When someone leaves, comes back or joins through a sale

HFWA doesn't require you to pay out unused sick leave when someone leaves your business. You do need to plan for two situations. If you rehire someone within six months of their departure, the act requires you to reinstate the sick leave they'd earned and not used. If you acquire another business, you take on its HFWA obligations, including the sick leave its team members have already earned.

Using sick leave

Team members can use HFWA leave for more than their own colds. According to the state's guidance, the reasons are:

1. Their own illness or injury: a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition that keeps them from working.
2. Medical care: preventive care, including vaccinations, or diagnosis, care or treatment of a mental or physical condition.
3. Safety needs: when they're a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or criminal harassment and need medical attention, counseling, legal or victim services, or to relocate.
4. Caring for a family member: who needs any of the care above. Family includes immediate family and anyone else the team member is responsible for providing or arranging health or safety care for.
5. Public health emergency closures: a public official closes their workplace, or their child's school or place of care, during a public health emergency.
6. Bereavement: grieving, attending a funeral or memorial, or handling financial or legal matters after a family member dies.
7. Weather and other unexpected events: inclement weather, a loss of power, heat or water, or another unexpected event means they have to evacuate their home or care for a family member whose school or place of care closed.

The last two reasons were added in 2023 and apply from August 7, 2023. If your handbook was written before then, it may still be missing them.

What you can and can't ask for

Notice. For leave that's foreseeable, like a scheduled appointment, you can ask team members to let you know as soon as practicable, and you can set reasonable notice procedures in a written policy. You can't deny paid sick leave because someone didn't follow that procedure, and team members don't have to mention HFWA by name when they ask for leave.

Documentation. You can ask for reasonable documentation only when someone is out for four or more consecutive days they would normally have worked. A note from a health care provider works, and if they didn't see a provider, or can't get a note in time or without extra cost, their own written explanation is enough. You can't require the document to be signed, notarized or in a set format, you can't make it a condition of taking the leave, and any health or safety details you receive must be kept confidential and stored separately from the regular personnel file. If you think a document falls short, you need to tell the team member within seven days of receiving it (or of their return to work) and give them at least seven days to fix it.

Increments. You can require leave to be used in one-hour increments. If your written policy doesn't set a minimum, team members can use leave in increments as small as six minutes.

What your managers need to know

Paid sick leave can't be counted as an absence that leads to discipline or firing, and you can't require someone on leave to find their own replacement. Check your attendance point system and any performance plans against this rule: the state's guidance describes a disciplinary plan that bars a team member from using sick leave while it's in place, which violates HFWA even if the team member signs it. Any agreement to give up HFWA rights is void. Managers are often the first to hear "I'm not feeling well today," so make sure they know these rules as well as you do.

Paying for sick leave and keeping records

Sick leave is paid at the same hourly rate or salary, with the same benefits, the team member normally earns, on your regular payday. The rate includes things like shift differentials and commissions, though it doesn't have to include overtime, discretionary bonuses or holiday pay. Colorado's updated Wage Protection Rules, in effect since February 1, 2026, spell out how to work out that rate when it isn't straightforward:

• Salaried team members: if their regular pay isn't reduced when they use sick leave, you don't owe extra sick pay on top of it.
• Tipped team members: if they're normally paid below the full minimum wage, sick leave has to be paid at the full minimum wage.
• Base rate plus commission: leave is paid at the base rate or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher.
• Rates you can't know in advance: leave is paid at the team member's regular rate, worked out from their pay over the 30 calendar days before the leave, leaving out overtime premiums, bonuses and holiday pay.

Team members keep the same access to benefits while they're on leave. You keep making benefit contributions tied to their wages or their employment, although you don't have to make contributions that are based only on hours actually worked. For the other Colorado changes that took effect this year, see my post on this year's new Colorado employment laws.

Records

You need to keep records for each team member for two years showing hours worked, sick leave accrued and sick leave used. Team members can ask once a month for a written or electronic statement of how much leave they have available and how much they've used that year, with an extra request allowed when they need to take leave. If your payroll system tracks accrual for you, check that it's set to one hour per 30 worked, stops at 48 for the year and carries unused hours forward. My HR & Payroll Record Retention Toolkit lists how long to keep each type of record, with the general federal and Colorado requirement and my recommendation.

Public health emergency leave

HFWA has a second layer of leave that only switches on when a public health emergency is declared. It isn't in effect right now: the state labor department's paid sick leave page lists public health emergency leave as "not currently in effect," and the last one, tied to COVID-19, ended on May 11, 2023. You'll want to know the rules ahead of time, since team members can use this leave as soon as an emergency is declared.

During a declared public health emergency, team members are entitled to enough extra paid leave to bring their available leave up to:

• Full-time team members: at least 80 hours.
• Part-time team members: the greater of the hours they're scheduled to work, or actually work on average, in a 14-day period.

You can count a team member's unused accrued leave toward that amount, but team members can choose to use emergency leave first when a reason qualifies for both. A few rules work differently from regular sick leave. You can't require documentation to take emergency leave, and a PTO policy doesn't replace it: if an emergency is declared after a team member has used all their PTO on vacation, you still have to provide the supplemental leave. The state has said it will issue updated guidance if another emergency is declared, and that's the first place to check.

Updating your PTO policy

You don't need a separate sick leave bank. A PTO policy that combines vacation and sick time can satisfy HFWA on its own, as long as it gives at least the same amount of paid leave, for all the same reasons, under conditions that aren't any stricter than the law's. That last part is easy to miss: a PTO policy can meet the hours and still fall short if it requires a doctor's note for a one-day absence, adds attendance points for calling in sick, or makes new hires wait before using their time. You also have to tell team members in writing, before they need leave, that your PTO policy covers HFWA and that no extra sick leave will be provided if they use all their PTO for other reasons, such as vacation.

What to check in your policy

• Accrual: at least one hour per 30 worked, up to 48 hours a year, from day one. Giving the hours up front works too.
• Reasons: all seven HFWA reasons, including bereavement and evacuations.
• Carryover: up to 48 hours of unused leave rolls into the next year.
• Notice and documentation: notice only for foreseeable leave, and documentation only after four or more consecutive workdays.
• No penalties: sick leave doesn't count toward attendance discipline, and no one has to find a replacement.
• Increments: the minimum increment you'll use, in writing.
• Public health emergencies: a line saying supplemental leave will be provided if an emergency is declared.

PTO and final paychecks

A combined policy comes with a trade-off at the end of employment. Under Colorado wage law, paid leave that team members can use for any reason they choose counts as vacation pay, whatever you call it, and earned vacation pay has to be paid out when someone leaves. Leave that can only be used for specific needs, like a sick-only bank, doesn't have to be paid out. It's worth deciding on purpose whether to combine sick leave and vacation or keep them separate, and the state labor department's INFO #3E explains the vacation rule in detail. If you ever pay out PTO early, the payout can't leave team members with less paid sick leave than HFWA requires.

Your written notice and poster

Every employer has to do two things: give each team member written notice of their HFWA rights, and display the state's poster where your team works. Handing out a copy of the current Colorado Workplace Public Health Rights Poster or INFO #6B, on paper or electronically, covers the written notice, and new hires should get it no later than the rest of their onboarding paperwork. If your team works remotely, the written notice is enough on its own. If a language other than English is the first language of at least 5% of your workforce, the notice and poster need to be in that language too.

If you'd like a second set of eyes on your leave policy, this is the kind of work I do in HR Foundations & Compliance. I review handbooks at least once a year and any time a law or your business changes, and I help put leave policies in place that your managers can actually follow. Day-to-day leave questions are part of HR Operations Support, and either way, it starts with a conversation whenever you're ready to contact me.