Colorado requires final pay immediately when you are fired or laid off — within hours if the payroll office is open, and no later than the start of the next workday's accounting window when it is not.
Law: C.R.S. §8-4-109 · Rules checked October 2026
If you quit, Colorado sets the deadline at the next regular payday. The free wage claim for either path goes to the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics — the walkthrough in the kit lists its window and what to attach.
Colorado's penalty is trigger-built: send a written demand; if the wages are still unpaid 14 days later, the penalty is the greater of 200% of the wages or $1,000 — and 300% or $3,000 if the failure was willful (§8-4-109(3)). No demand, no penalty clock.
Your state treats earned vacation as wages: if you had accrued, unused vacation when you left, it must be paid in your final check. Forfeiture clauses ("use it or lose it" at separation) are void here.
The free claim goes to Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. It costs nothing and you do not need a lawyer; what you need is the amount computed, the demand already sent where your state rewards one, and the file assembled.
Filing window: 730 days from the date the wages were due. Colorado wage claims must be filed within two years of the due date (three if the failure was willful).
Compute your Colorado verdict — free
General information from the published statute — not legal advice. Penalty figures elsewhere on this site are statutory maximums, with willfulness conditions named where the statute names them.