Per Jan. 1, 2021 updates to Colorado’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), most employers — regardless of size — must provide up to 80 hours of paid leave for COVID-19 related absences. In addition, employers with 16 or more employees must provide up to 48 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year.

CO HFWA Paid Leave Requirements in Effect as of Jan. 1, 2021

CO HFWA General Paid Sick Leave (PSL): Employers with 16+ employees are required to provide up to 48 hours of sick pay per year (this is unrelated to the pandemic).

• All employees receive 48 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year
• Employers can elect an accrual method of tracking or can choose to provide a lump sum at the beginning of each year.
• PSL will be required for ALL CO employers starting 2022
• If you are an ASAP payroll client, ask your account manager about receiving a copy of our Sick Leave Policy template ($25 one-time fee)

CO HFWA Public Health Emergency Leave (PHEL): Employers, regardless of size, are required to provide up to 80 hours of paid leave related to a public health emergency.

• On Dec. 27, 2020, Colorado enacted a 30-day extension of its COVID-19 public health emergency, which triggered the PHEL provision of HFWA to take effect Jan. 1, 2021. PHEL “reset” employees’ total number of allowable hours for COVID-19 leave in 2021, which are available up to 4 weeks following the end of the public health emergency. We anticipate that PHEL will be extended again.
• If your organization is eligible for FFCRA, you may be able to claim federal tax credits for HFWA wages (or comparable leave per your PTO policy) through Sept. 30, 2021.

NOTE: The federal requirement for employers to provide FFCRA paid leave ended Dec. 31, 2020, and tax credits are not available for qualified leave taken after Sept. 30, 2021. However, you may be able to retroactively claim dollar-for-dollar payroll tax credits if you offered “FFCRA-type” leave, such as HFWA (up to 80 hours per employee for qualified leave taken from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021; and up to another hours of qualified leave from April 1, 2021 – Sept. 30, 2021).

• If you are an ASAP payroll client and have questions regarding the FFCRA credits, please reach out so we can help you with payroll and tax reporting requirements