Overtime and state rules · rules read October 11, 2026
Colorado overtime under COMPS Order #40
The calculator is locked on Colorado: enter each workday and your rate; days past twelve hours and weeks past forty are both counted.
Written by Radif Partners · How the hours are counted · Editorial policy
Overtime pay this week
$243.00
9.00 h at 1.5x · gross $963.00
| Total hours | 49.00 h |
| Regular hours | 40.00 h × $18.00 |
| Overtime hours | 9.00 h × $27.00 |
| Gross pay before taxes | $963.00 |
Colorado: overtime after 12 hours a day and after 40 hours a week. Days are in workweek order. How this is calculated.
Colorado requires time and a half for hours worked past 40 in a workweek, past 12 in a workday, or past 12 consecutive hours regardless of when the workday starts, and Rule 4.1.2 of COMPS Order #40, in force since February 1, 2026, says the calculation that pays the employee more is the one used. The daily trigger is higher than California’s but it covers short weeks the federal rule ignores. Three thirteen-hour shifts at $22 hold 3 overtime hours and pay $891.00, against $858.00 under the FLSA alone. Four twelve-hour shifts reach no daily overtime, yet the week of 48 hours still carries 8 through the weekly count. Rule 4.1.3 forbids averaging hours across two or more workweeks. The state minimum wage is $15.16 an hour in 2026, rising to $15.71 in 2027 according to the state labor department, and the order also sets a 30-minute meal period and paid 10-minute rest breaks.
One long day in Colorado: how the hours split
Pay for the day
$243.00
| Regular | 12.00 h |
| Overtime 1.5x | 1.00 h |
| Double time 2x | 0.00 h |
Same day under the federal rule alone: $234.00, no overtime until 40 hours in the week.
Rule 4: three overtime triggers and a tiebreaker
The COMPS Order #40 took effect on February 1, 2026 and replaces the order that came before it. Its Rule 4 lists three ways an hour becomes overtime: it falls past 40 hours in the workweek, past 12 hours in the workday, or past 12 consecutive hours without regard to when the workday begins. Rule 4.1.2 then settles any overlap with a short instruction: compute it each way and pay whichever result is greater. In practice that means an hour is counted once, under the trigger that reaches it first, which is how the calculator on this page applies the order.
Rule 4.1.3 closes the door on averaging. A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of seven days, and each one stands alone. The same holds under federal law; Colorado restates it in its own order, so a payroll that nets a long week against a short one breaks both.
| Workweek | Rate | Daily overtime | Weekly overtime | Gross pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three 13-hour shifts | $22 | 3 | 0 | $891.00 |
| Four 12-hour shifts | $20 | 0 | 8 | $1,040.00 |
| A 14-hour Monday, then four 8-hour days | $15.16 | 2 | 4 | $742.84 |
| Five 10-hour days | $20 | 0 | 10 | $1,100.00 |
The third row combines both triggers. The 14-hour Monday has 2 hours past 12, set aside as daily overtime. Its remaining 12 straight hours plus the four eight-hour days make 44 straight hours, so 4 more cross the weekly line. At the $15.16 minimum wage, the week of 46 hours pays $742.84. Counting the Monday's excess twice, once daily and once weekly, would overpay; skipping the daily count would underpay. Rule 4.1.2 is there to stop both mistakes.
Meal periods and the paid rest table
Rule 5 of the same order covers breaks. An employee is entitled to a 30-minute meal period when a shift runs past 5 consecutive hours. Rest breaks are different: 10 minutes for every four hours of work, paid, and never subtracted from hours worked. The order spells out the count in a table, reproduced below.
| Shift length | Paid rest breaks | Paid rest time |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 2 hours | 0 | 0 min |
| More than 2 and up to 6 hours | 1 | 10 min |
| More than 6 and up to 10 hours | 2 | 20 min |
| More than 10 and up to 14 hours | 3 | 30 min |
| More than 14 and up to 18 hours | 4 | 40 min |
| More than 18 and up to 22 hours | 5 | 50 min |
| More than 22 and up to 24 hours | 6 | 60 min |
A rest break counts as time worked, so it can push a day toward the 12-hour line. A twelve-hour shift with three paid breaks is still twelve hours of work on the time card; a thirty-minute unpaid lunch on top makes the presence twelve and a half hours without changing the overtime count. The meal and rest breaks guide compares these rules with California's and with the federal position, under which breaks are not required at all.
Colorado rest and meal periods for one shift
Paid rest periods
2
| Paid rest time | 20 min |
| Meal period | 30 min owed (shift over 5 h) |
The meal period applies past 5 consecutive hours of work; rest breaks are paid time.
Minimum wage now and in 2027
The state minimum is $15.16 an hour in 2026. In a press release of August 13, 2026, the state labor department announced $15.71 for 2027. A full 40-hour week at the current rate pays $606.40; at next year's, $628.40. The overtime rate follows: $22.74 now, $23.57 next year. To set Colorado next to the other daily states, see which states pay daily overtime; for a salaried role, the exemption tests apply before any of this.