Mountain · Healthcare
Healthcare scheduling laws in Colorado.
Colorado's COMPS Order is the most schedule-sensitive wage rule outside California, and for one specific reason: overtime is owed not only past 12 hours in a workday but past 12 CONSECUTIVE hours, whichever produces the higher pay. That second trigger catches overnight shifts that straddle two workdays and cost nothing under a purely daily rule.
Last updated 2026-07. Statute citations linked inline. Not legal advice — consult counsel for compliance audits.
Rules that affect your schedule
4 Colorado rules to know.
Each rule includes the statute reference and how Weekwright helps you stay compliant. We focus on rules that affect the schedule itself — not every wage-and-hour topic.
Daily and consecutive-hours overtime
7 CCR 1103-1 (COMPS Order #38), Rule 41.5x for hours over 40 in a workweek, over 12 in a workday, OR over 12 consecutive hours regardless of when the workday starts — whichever calculation pays more. The consecutive-hours trigger is the one scheduling software usually misses.
How Weekwright helps
MAX_HOURS_PER_DAY at 12 catches the daily trigger, and MIN_REST_HOURS_BETWEEN_SHIFTS is what actually protects you on the consecutive-hours one: a rest rule makes a 12-hour-plus continuous stretch across two workdays impossible to schedule in the first place. Both are checked at create, move, and publish.
Meal period on shifts over 5 hours
7 CCR 1103-1 (COMPS Order #38), Rule 5.1An uninterrupted, duty-free 30-minute meal period once a shift exceeds 5 consecutive hours, and — to the extent practical — at least one hour after the shift starts and one hour before it ends. The employee must be fully relieved of duty for it to be unpaid.
How Weekwright helps
Breaks are recorded as MEAL or REST with a paid/unpaid flag through the clock-in flow, and check_meal_break_compliance reads the actual punch data — reporting how many shifts it checked, so a clean result means the breaks were verified rather than absent.
Paid rest periods
7 CCR 1103-1 (COMPS Order #38), Rule 5.2A 10-minute PAID rest period for every 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof, positioned near the middle of each 4-hour block. A rest break that is interrupted or cannot be taken counts as paid work time.
How Weekwright helps
Paid rest breaks stay inside the paid total on the payroll export while unpaid meal breaks are deducted, so an interrupted rest break does not silently become unpaid time in the file you pay wages from.
Twelve-hour shifts are legal but expensive
Nothing prohibits a 12-hour shift in Colorado. The consequence is purely financial: cross 12 hours in the day or 12 consecutive hours and the premium starts, so a 12-hour rotation needs the boundary treated as a hard line rather than a target.
How Weekwright helps
Set MAX_HOURS_PER_DAY to 12 with BLOCKING severity and the week cannot be published with a 12.5-hour shift in it. For rotations that intentionally run long, preview_week_compliance shows the whole week's exposure before you publish rather than after payroll.
Official sources
Citations link to the primary statute, ordinance, or agency page so you can verify against the original. This is research guidance, not legal advice — consult counsel for compliance audits.
Pricing
Per seat. Predictable across states.
Compliance rules apply per location, so a chain operating in Colorado and elsewhere runs each rule set independently.
Starter
For your first scheduled week.
$0/mo, billed annuallyStart free- 1 location, up to 20 employees
- Unlimited weekly schedules
- Time-off, swaps, templates
- Email support
- Most popular
Core
The agent writes your week.
$32/mo, billed annually · per locationStart free- Unlimited employees — hiring never changes your bill
- AI weekly drafts + gap fill
- Conversational scheduling chat
- Compliance rules engine
- Open shifts, swaps, templates
Pro
Core plus the answers.
$65/mo, billed annually · per locationStart free- Everything in Core
- Per-shift assignment explanations
- Cross-week fairness + reliability
- Proactive weekly manager briefing
- Attendance, coverage + break analytics
Business
For multi-location operators.
$82/mo, billed annually · per locationTalk to us- Everything in Pro
- + $99/mo platform fee
- SSO (Google Workspace)
- Audit retention 7 years
- Jurisdiction compliance baseline
- Priority support
Common questions
Colorado healthcare FAQ.
What scheduling laws does Colorado have for healthcare?
Colorado's COMPS Order is the most schedule-sensitive wage rule outside California, and for one specific reason: overtime is owed not only past 12 hours in a workday but past 12 CONSECUTIVE hours, whichever produces the higher pay. That second trigger catches overnight shifts that straddle two workdays and cost nothing under a purely daily rule. The most relevant rules for healthcare are: Daily and consecutive-hours overtime, Meal period on shifts over 5 hours, Paid rest periods.
How does Weekwright help comply with Colorado scheduling laws?
Weekwright ships with a configurable compliance rules engine. Colorado-relevant rules (rest periods, consecutive-day limits, daily overtime caps) are checked at every shift create, move, and publish. The audit log captures every change for predictability-pay calculations and labor-board responses.
Does Weekwright automatically update when Colorado labor laws change?
We track changes to the major scheduling-related laws (predictive scheduling ordinances, sick leave, daily overtime). Compliance rule defaults can be updated org-wide; we don't push silent changes — labor law is sensitive enough that we surface the diff first.
What about healthcare businesses outside Colorado?
Weekwright is multi-jurisdiction friendly. Each location pins its IANA timezone and its own set of compliance rules — a chain operating in Colorado and another state runs both rule sets independently, on the same dashboard.
Schedule healthcare compliantly in Colorado.
Free for up to 10 employees. No credit card required.