LeaveCalc / Sick leave / Colorado

Colorado paid sick leave calculator

Enter your hours worked and see your accrued paid sick leave under Colorado’s law, including any cap and your running balance, instantly and privately.

✓ Free✓ Runs in your browser, nothing uploaded✓ Uses Colorado’s 2026 sick leave rules

1 Your hours

How we count:
  • We multiply the hours you worked by Colorado's accrual rate to estimate hours earned.
  • If the law sets an annual accrual cap, we stop counting new hours once you hit it.
  • If the law sets a maximum balance, your total before subtracting used hours is capped there too.
  • This does not account for hours carried over from a previous year or usage timed partway through the period.
Not legal advice or a payroll record. These are estimates based on the accrual rules on file for Colorado. Always check your actual balance against your pay stub, employee handbook or HR/payroll system; real-world proration and policy exceptions are not reflected here.

The rule in Colorado

“1 hour per 30 hours worked; cap 48h/yr accrued (Healthy Families and Workplaces Act)”

“1 hour per 30 hours worked; cap 48h/yr accrued (Healthy Families and Workplaces Act)”

  • Accrual rate. Earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work.
  • Annual accrual cap. 48.0 hours a year.
  • Maximum balance you can hold. No maximum balance figure is set in the data on file.
  • Payout at termination. Sick leave payout at termination is generally not required unless your employer’s own policy promises it. (This is separate from any vacation-payout rules that may apply in Colorado.)
  • Carryover. Nieto v. Clark's Market (2022): a use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture of earned vacation is void. A cap on how much accrues going forward remains enforceable.
High confidenceOfficial source

How Colorado’s paid sick leave accrual works

Under Colorado’s paid sick leave law, earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work.

Under Colorado’s paid sick leave law, earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work. That works out to about 1.3 hours a week for a full-time, 40-hour-a-week employee, or about 69.3 hours over a full 2,080-hour work year, before any cap in the law is applied.

Colorado caps how much you can accrue in a single year at 48.0 hours (6.0 days at 8 hours a day). At 40 hours a week, it takes about 36 weeks of work to reach that ceiling; after that, you stop accruing new hours until you use some.

Sick leave you do not use is generally not paid out when you leave your job unless your employer’s own policy says otherwise; that is a separate question from Colorado’s rules about ordinary vacation pay at termination, which this page does not cover. On carryover: Nieto v. Clark's Market (2022): a use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture of earned vacation is void. A cap on how much accrues going forward remains enforceable.

Part-time employees accrue the same way, just on fewer hours: someone working 25 hours a week under this law would earn about 0.8 hours of paid sick leave every week, or roughly 43.3 hours over a full year, subject to the same cap rules described above.

FAQ

How fast does paid sick leave accrue in Colorado?

You earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work.

Is there a cap on how much I can earn?

Yes, you stop earning new hours once you reach 48.0 hours in a year.

Can I carry unused sick leave into the next year?

The law sets a 48.0-hour annual accrual cap rather than a separate carryover limit, so unused hours can carry into the next year subject to that same ceiling. For context, Colorado’s general note on ordinary vacation carryover says: Nieto v. Clark's Market (2022): a use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture of earned vacation is void. A cap on how much accrues going forward remains enforceable.

Does my employer’s size change my sick leave rules in Colorado?

No, Colorado’s law does not vary the accrual rate or cap by employer size in the data on file.

Is unused sick time paid out when I leave my job?

Generally, no. Paid sick leave you have not used is typically not required to be paid out when you leave a job, unless your employer’s own written policy specifically promises it. That is a separate question from any rules your state may have about ordinary vacation pay at termination, which this page does not cover.

Where is Colorado’s paid sick leave law?

See the official source: https://cdle.colorado.gov/wage-and-hour-law. LeaveCalc’s confidence rating for this page is High.