Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to be a bigger part of our lives than any of us would like. The Omicron variant/surge continues to impact many of the businesses we support. Although most of our clients had not been previously infected with the virus (or their employees), the Omicron variant/surge has resulted in several of our clients that have recently had employees directly impacted with the virus and they are unable to work as a result (due to illness or quarantine requirements).

This update is to address some employer obligations that are required by law in Colorado if your employees get the virus AND we are under a federal or state Public Health Emergency (PHE). At the time of this update, we are still under a PHE.

The PHE obligation requires ALL employers to provide up to 80 hours of paid sick leave to all employees (some differentiation if part-time) and it is immediately available. (yes, that means if you hire someone on Monday and they get COVID on Wednesday, you are obligated to pay them up to 80 hours of paid sick leave as long as we are under a PHE declaration). Importantly, this PHE obligation is ON TOP of the HFWA obligation we previously shared (which was up to 48 hours of paid sick leave accrued at the rate of 1 hour per 30 hours worked) although any accrued HFWA time can be applied to the PHE.

The relevant page from the Colorado Department of Labor website is available on the first link below. However, we have copied the key excerpt below. In addition, we have provided a second link to the most recent CDC guidelines. This is pertinent as PHE is up to 80 hours. Per the new CDC guidelines, under certain circumstances employees could return to work within 5 days so your PHE obligation would be 40 hours, not 80. Also, if they were only exposed to another employee with COVID, they can still work if they are vaccinated/boosted (but need to mask up) so in that case you don't have to pay any PHE sick leave.

Two final comments

• Although prior years had certain federal tax relief clients could get if they made these payments, that benefit is no longer available so this is a direct hit to the bottom line in 2022.
• Please don't shoot the messenger - I did not draft the legislation nor impact the outcome of the votes that got it passed!!

Public Health Emergency (PHE) Leave (Still in Effect)

Employers must provide employees with up to two weeks of paid leave (80 hours if full-time, less if part-time) for COVID-related needs. The current 80-hour requirement took effect on January 1, 2021, and remains in effect.

Employees may still have PHE hours available to use if they didn’t use them in 2021, however employees don’t get a new 80 hours each time they have a COVID-related need, and don’t get a new 80 hours of PHE leave in 2022, except for newly hired full-time employees. Employees may use PHE leave until four weeks after a PHE ends.



PHE leave is usable for a range of COVID-related needs, not just for confirmed cases. COVID-related needs include:

• Illness with COVID symptoms
• Quarantining or isolating due to COVID exposure
• COVID testing
• Vaccination and side effects
• Inability to work due to health conditions that may increase susceptibility or risk of COVID
• COVID-related needs of family (illness, school closure, etc.). 

Employers cannot require documentation from employees to show that leave is for COVID-related needs. 

The emergency leave requirement remains ongoing, as long as a federal or a state “emergency” remains. As of the New Year (2022), both federal and state emergency declarations remain in effect. The Division will update this webpage immediately when the current PHE ends and the four week end period begins