Colorado restaurant labor laws

Colorado: overtime after 12h a day or 40h a week, $15.16 minimum wage, 30-min meal break after 5h, night limits for minors. Every figure sourced.

The figures ShiftNivo schedules against in Colorado, read from the source linked at the bottom of this page.

Updated October 16, 2026

Start with Colorado's rules loaded →No credit card. Free during early access.

What the engine does not model here

Colorado also counts 12 consecutive hours regardless of breaks; only the daily total is checked here.

Overtime

Daily: after 12h · 1.5×
Weekly: after 40h · 1.5×
Double time: No separate rule*

Rest between shifts: No separate rule*
Eating period: 30 min after 5h
Minimum wage: $15.16since 2026-07-01
Default time zone: America/Denver

* “No separate rule” means the engine does not enforce one here. That is not the same as saying the jurisdiction has none.

City and county minimum wages · 2

Some cities and counties in this state set their own minimum wage or tipped wage above the state's, and a restaurant they cover pays the higher one. When you set a location's labor rules, ShiftNivo offers these right after the state. Figures as they stood on October 16, 2026, from each place's own page or its state's; each place changes them on its own dates, most often January 1 or July 1.

Boulder (city)
Minimum wage
$16.82since January 1, 2026
Tipped cash wage
$13.80since January 1, 2026
Next change
$18.17 from January 1, 2027, $15.15 tipped
Every employer size in the city. The tip credit is at most $3.02 an hour. Unincorporated Boulder County has an ordinance of its own, also $16.82 in 2026.
Local Minimum Wage - City of Boulder
Denver
Minimum wage
$19.29since January 1, 2026
Tipped cash wage
$16.27since January 1, 2026
Next change
$19.84 from January 1, 2027, $16.82 tipped
Every employer, for work done in Denver. Only food and beverage staff may be paid the tipped wage, a credit of $3.02 at most, and only with records of at least that much in tips.
Denver's Minimum Wage - Denver Labor (Auditor's Office)

Public holidays · 11

A public holiday carries no statutory premium for a private employer under federal law, so these are shown as observed days. Eleven federal holidays are assigned to every state, with a few recognized state holidays added; a state's own full list is not complete here.

Christmas DayDecember 25
Columbus Daysecond Monday in October
Independence DayJuly 4
JuneteenthJune 19
Labor Dayfirst Monday in September
Memorial Daylast Monday in May
Martin Luther King Jr. Daythird Monday in January
New Year's DayJanuary 1
Presidents' Daythird Monday in February
Thanksgivingfourth Thursday in November
Veterans DayNovember 11

Youth hours

The bands the product checks for Colorado. United States figures come from the Department of Labor — its state table as published on 15 July 2025, or its federal rules — and are corrected from the state's own source where the table is wrong. Permits, supervision and exemptions sit underneath every band, and each one says what is not checked. Confirm with the state before relying on them.

Under 14
Not permitted
Federal floor. 14 is the minimum age for most non-agricultural work.
Ages 14 to 15
School day
6h
Non-school day
8h
School week
40h
Week
40h
Not between 9:30 p.m. and 5 a.m., on school nights
The evening limit binds only on a night before a school day. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.
Ages 16 to 17
Non-school day
8h
Week
40h
Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.

Source: dol.gov/agencies/whd/youthrules · dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/child-labor

Minors →

What ShiftNivo checks for you here

Overtime after 12 hours in a day or 40 in a week, priced as you build and never counted twice, with a warning four hours before anyone crosses the weekly line.
A shift longer than 5 hours without its 30-minute eating period.
Workers under 18: the minimum age, the hours in a day and in a week, and the evening limit, read from a birth date and marked as errors, not warnings.
11 public holidays, each flagged the week before it arrives.
Everywhere: double bookings, approved time off, and shifts outside the hours someone said they can work.

Start with Colorado's rules loaded →

Next door

The rules one border over, for a second location or a team that crosses it.

The federal standard: Federal (FLSA) →All 66 jurisdictions →

This is reference data, not legal advice.

Every figure on this page was read from the source linked beside it and carries the date it took effect. Minimum wages are indexed once or twice a year in most jurisdictions — usually on 1 April or 1 October — so this table is reviewed on a schedule rather than when somebody notices.

Employment standards change, and a restaurant's obligations depend on facts no software can see: an exemption, a collective agreement, a municipal ordinance, the particular job somebody does. Some rules are deliberately not modeled, and where that is true this page says which.

Treat these figures as a starting point. Confirm them against the source before relying on them for pay, and take advice about your own situation.

Found something wrong? Corrections get fixed first. hello@shiftnivo.com

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