Colorado Overtime Laws

• Colorado overtime laws differ from federal overtime laws in one respect. Federal laws only require overtime if the employee works more than 40 hours in a workweek. Colorado laws include that requirement but also state that employers must pay overtime for more than 12 hours of work if the employee works the excess hours in one day or in a consecutive manner on two workdays. The employer must give the employee the greater benefit when deciding whether hours qualify for overtime pay. Compensatory time, or paid time off instead of overtime, is forbidden under both Colorado and federal statutes for non-exempt employees in the private sector.
  
  

Salaried Non-Exempt Employee with a Fluctuating Workweek

• A non-exempt employee may have an agreement with his employer to work fluctuating workweeks. The agreement does not establish a fixed number of work hours per week, but the employee receives a weekly salary regardless of the number of hours he works. The employer must still pay him overtime for any week in which he works more than 40 hours. Under Colorado law, the overtime rate is one-half the employee's regular rate. The regular rate of pay is the weekly salary divided by the total hours worked during that week. If the employee's salary is $500 and he works 50 hours in one week, his regular rate is $10. Half of the employee's regular rate is $5, so he would be paid $50 (10 hours times $5) in addition to his $500 salary.
  
  

Salaried Non-Exempt Employee with a Fixed Workweek

• An employer and a non-exempt employee may have an agreement specifying that a workweek is 40 hours. In this instance, the overtime rate is 1.5 times the regular rate. As an example, if an employee earns a weekly salary of $500 for a fixed 40-hour workweek, his regular rate is $12.50 per hour and his overtime rate is $18.75 per hour. If he works 50 hours in one week, he earns $187.50 in overtime or a total of $687.50 in salary and overtime for the week.
  
  

Salaried Non-Exempt Employee with a Monthly Salary

• If the employer pays a non-exempt employee a monthly salary, it is necessary to determine the equivalent weekly salary. To do this, first compute the annual salary, which is 12 times the monthly salary. Divide the annual salary by 52 to arrive at the equivalent weekly salary. If the monthly salary is $5,200, then the annual salary is $62,400 and the weekly salary is $1,200. Dividing the weekly salary by the total hours worked in the week yields the employee's regular rate. In this example, if the employee worked 60 hours during the week in question, his regular rate would be $20. Multiply his regular rate by 0.5 to arrive at his overtime rate, which would be $10. The employee earns 20 hours at $10 per hour, or $200, in overtime for a weekly total of $1,400.