Colorado · Paid leave · Updated April 2026

Colorado's HFWA paid sick leave applies to every employer — regardless of size.

The Healthy Families and Workplaces Act requires every Colorado employer to provide paid sick leave. Workers accrue 1 hour per 30 worked, capped at 48 hours per year, with up to 48 unused hours carrying over annually. Effective February 2026, you must surface real-time balances to workers on request.

Accrual
1hr / 30hrs
Annual Cap
48 hrs
Authority
C.R.S. § 8-13.3
Active

HFWA Sick Leave Balance & Carryover

Accrues 1 hour per 30 worked, caps annual usage at 48 hours, carries over unused balance up to 48 hours. Surfaces real-time balance in the worker app.

Show balance on every paystub
Always running

What the rule does as workers accrue and use HFWA leave.

The hero card configuration: Flag on every paystub. Here's what that does at runtime.

Flag · on every paystub

The worker's HFWA balance shows on every paystub: accrued this period, used year-to-date, available now. The 2026 recordkeeping rule requires this; Teambridge applies the standard automatically.

Skip the configuration

Deploy HFWA in your Teambridge.

Tell us about your workforce. We'll spin up HFWA accrual, balance tracking, and the 2026 recordkeeping rule — alongside the other 17 Colorado policies — in a sandbox tenant.

Or book a 30-min walkthrough. We respond within 4 business hours.

The rule, plainly stated

1 hour per 30, capped at 48, no employer-size exception.

HFWA's accrual rule is straightforward; the bigger compliance burden is the breadth (every employer) and the use rules (you can't deny a qualifying request).

C.R.S. § 8-13.3-401 et seq. (Healthy Families and Workplaces Act): Every employer in Colorado, regardless of size, shall provide each employee paid sick leave accrued at a rate of one hour for every thirty hours worked, up to a maximum of forty-eight hours per year, with up to forty-eight unused hours carried over to the following year.

Universal applicability

HFWA applies to every Colorado employer. There is no employer-size exemption. A 1-employee business has the same obligation as a 10,000-employee business.

Accrual rate

1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. A 40-hour-per-week worker accrues 1.33 hours per week, hitting the 48-hour cap around mid-year.

On autopilot

Teambridge accrues, caps, carries over, and surfaces — without anyone tracking it.

HFWA compliance is mostly bookkeeping that humans get wrong. The accrual is automatic. The visibility is automatic. The denial guardrails (covered by the HFWA Approval Guardrails policy) are automatic.

01 · Accrual on every clock-out

1 hour earned per 30 worked.

Every time a worker clocks out, Teambridge accrues HFWA at the legal rate. Balance updates in real time, visible to both worker and manager.

02 · Cap enforcement

Annual 48-hour cap, carryover preserved.

Workers stop accruing when balance reaches 48. At year-end, unused hours up to 48 carry over. The cap on usage stays at 48 per year, but available balance can be up to 96 (current year + carryover).

03 · Worker app visibility

Balance shown in real time.

Worker can see their balance any time in the worker app, including a 12-month history of accrual and usage. The 2026 recordkeeping rule is satisfied without admin intervention.

04 · Paystub disclosure

Every paystub shows the balance.

Pay stubs include 'HFWA accrued this period,' 'used YTD,' 'available now' — fulfilling the disclosure requirement.

Free · No commitment

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FAQ

People also ask.

Does HFWA apply to small employers?
Yes. Every Colorado employer must provide HFWA paid sick leave, regardless of size. There is no small-employer exemption. A 1-employee business has the same obligation as a 1,000-employee business.
How does HFWA accrual work?
Workers accrue 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The annual cap on accrued (and used) hours is 48. Up to 48 unused hours can carry over to the following year, so a worker's available balance can be up to 96 at the start of a new benefit year.
What can HFWA leave be used for?
Worker's own illness, care of a family member's illness, public health emergencies, domestic violence/abuse needs, bereavement, or evacuation due to inclement weather. The employer cannot require finding replacement coverage as a condition of leave.
What changed with HFWA in 2026?
Effective February 1, 2026, the COMPS Order Wage Protection Rule requires employers to maintain per-employee records of HFWA accrued, used, and available — and produce them to workers on request up to once monthly. Teambridge surfaces these on every paystub by default.
Can I frontload HFWA instead of accruing?
Yes. Employers may frontload 48 hours at the start of the benefit year, avoiding accrual tracking. Carryover (up to 48 hours) is still required unless the annual usage is capped at 48 — most frontload arrangements set this cap.
Is unused HFWA paid out at separation?
No. Unlike vacation, HFWA hours are not required to be paid out when a worker leaves. They simply expire.
How does Teambridge handle HFWA?
Teambridge accrues HFWA on every clock-out at the legal rate, enforces the 48-hour annual cap, preserves carryover, and surfaces the balance in real time on the worker app and on every paystub. The 2026 recordkeeping rule is satisfied automatically.