Colorado meal and rest break law: 30 minutes over 5 hours, 10 minutes per 4 hours, overtime after 12 in a day

The short answer

Colorado sets both a meal period and paid rest breaks in the Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards Order (COMPS Order, 7 CCR 1103-1), which the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics updates each year:

• Meal period: an uninterrupted, duty-free 30 minutes for any shift of more than 5 hours, unpaid if the employee is fully relieved. Where the nature of the work makes a duty-free meal impracticable, the employee may eat on duty, and the time is paid.
• Rest break: a 10-minute paid rest period for every 4 hours worked or major fraction (more than 2 hours): one for a shift over 2 hours up to 6, two over 6 up to 10, three over 10 up to 14.
• Overtime: time and a half after 40 hours in the week, after 12 hours in the day, or after 12 consecutive hours, whichever gives the employee more.

Rules and the current order are on cdle.colorado.gov. Minors follow the Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act.

Meal periods: the five-hour trigger and the one-hour margins

The meal period is due once the shift passes 5 hours, and, to the extent practicable, it should fall at least one hour after the start and at least one hour before the end of the shift. A 6-hour shift starting at 10:00 has its meal somewhere between 11:00 and 15:00.

The employee must be relieved of all duties and free to spend the time as they choose; otherwise the meal is on duty and paid. An on-duty meal is the exception, reserved for situations where the work genuinely does not allow someone to step away, such as a single employee on site. It is not a default for a busy Saturday.

Rest breaks: ten minutes, paid, one per four hours or major fraction

Hours worked	Rest breaks
2 or less	0
More than 2, up to 6	1
More than 6, up to 10	2
More than 10, up to 14	3

Rest breaks are paid, counted as hours worked, and taken in the middle of each 4-hour period insofar as practicable. Colorado explicitly allows, by agreement, two 5-minute breaks in place of one 10-minute break where that fits the work better.

A rest break that is not provided is paid as additional work time: the COMPS Order treats the missed 10 minutes as time worked, at the employee's rate, on top of the hours already paid. Over a year, a store that skips one rest break a day per employee owes each of them more than 40 hours.

The other Colorado rules that shape a schedule

Daily overtime after 12 hours. Colorado does not have California's 8-hour daily threshold, but a 13-hour inventory day is one hour of overtime even in a short week.

Paid sick leave. The Healthy Families and Workplaces Act gives one hour of paid sick leave per 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year, for all employers. Balances belong next to the schedule.

Local rules. Denver has its own minimum wage, higher than the state's; it does not change the break rules.

Building a Colorado schedule that holds

1. Write the 30-minute meal into every shift over 5 hours, at least an hour in and an hour before the end.
2. Anchor one rest break per 4-hour block, in the middle, on the clock. Two on a standard 8-hour day.
3. Flag 12-hour days before publishing: the thirteenth hour is overtime regardless of the week.
4. Record what happened. Clock-out and clock-in for unpaid meals; a paid flag for on-duty meals; and if a rest break was missed, pay the 10 minutes as time worked.

Squadra puts the break inside each shift, records unpaid meal periods as a clock-out and clock-in, and shows daily hours per person so a 12-hour day stands out. Free up to 10 employees: see the pricing.

For the federal floor and the other states: break laws in the US. California and Oregon apply a similar "major fraction" rule with different thresholds.