When is your final paycheck due in Colorado?

The Colorado rule in full

Wages that are earned, vested, determinable and unpaid at the time of discharge are due and payable immediately, subject to two statutory exceptions. Where the employer's payroll accounting unit is not operational, payment is due within six hours of the start of the next workday; where that unit is off-site, within twenty-four hours. Separately, where the employee was entrusted with the collection, disbursement or handling of the employer's money or property, the employer may take up to ten calendar days after separation to audit and adjust the account before final payment, subject to the statute's notice and deduction requirements.

A payroll team will usually answer this question from its own calendar. The deadline comes from the statute, so it is worth checking the date you were given against the rule above before you accept it.

Does Colorado pay out unused PTO?

Colorado requires payment of vacation pay that is earned and determinable under the terms of your agreement, and an agreement cannot forfeit it on separation. What counts as vacation is the part people get wrong: the Division treats leave that is usable at your own discretion as vacation, so general-purpose PTO usually qualifies. Leave that is conditional — usable only on a qualifying event such as a medical need, a caretaking responsibility, bereavement or a holiday — is not vacation payable on separation. Genuinely unlimited PTO is ordinarily not payable either, because the amount owed is not determinable.

C.R.S. § 8-4-101(14)(a)(III); CDLE INFO #3E

What it costs your employer to pay late

Where wages stay unpaid fourteen days after a written demand — which may be an informal demand, the employee's filed complaint, or the Division's Notice of Complaint — the Division may order the greater of 200% of the wages due or $1,000, rising to the greater of 300% or $3,000 where the failure is willful. A wage judgment against the same employer in the previous five years is evidence of willfulness, and a second like violation inside five years is willful per se, so a repeat offender is exposed to the higher tier. Penalties are not unconditional: under the 2025 amendments the director may waive the penalty where the employer pays within fourteen days of the demand and the statutory conditions are met.

What your employer may deduct

Colorado lists the deductions an employer may make: those required by law, loans or advances or property provided under a written agreement, shortages from theft where a police report has been filed, and revocable deductions you authorized. Where you were entrusted with the collection, disbursement or handling of the employer's money or property, the employer may take up to 10 calendar days after separation to audit and adjust the account before final payment, subject to the statute's written-notice and deduction requirements. No deduction may take you below the federal minimum wage.

C.R.S. § 8-4-105; CDLE INFO #16 (deductions from, and credits towards, employee pay)

How to claim unpaid wages in Colorado

Send a written demand for the unpaid wages, then file a wage complaint with the Division. The 14-day clock that drives the penalty runs from a written demand, and the Division treats an informal demand, your filed complaint, or its own Notice of Complaint as qualifying — so the clock can start without you having sent anything formal. Keep a dated copy of whatever you send and proof of how it was sent.

Administrative cap: $13,000. Above that figure the claim belongs in court rather than with the agency.

Before you file

1. 1Ask payroll in writing for an itemized breakdown of the final payment and the date it was issued. A written record is what every later step depends on, and the request itself is often what resolves it.
2. 2Save your pay stubs, offer letter, any written notice of your last day, and the employer's PTO policy. Do it now if you still have system access.
3. 3Note the exact date the wages became due under the Colorado rule above, and the date you were actually paid. The gap between them is the claim.
4. 4If it is still unresolved, file with the agency above rather than waiting for HR. The filing deadline runs from when the wages were due, not from when the employer stops replying.

Colorado final paycheck questions