Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Colorado’s Equal Pay Act applies to all employers and employees in the state of Colorado, both public and private.  Employer is defined as the state or any political subdivision, commission, department, institution, or school district thereof, and every other person employing a person in the state.  Employee is defined as a person employed by an employer.

There are several components to Colorado’s Equal Pay Act. Some of the provisions are:

1. Prohibits wage discrimination by requiring that an employer shall not discriminate between employees on the basis of sex, or on the basis of sex in combination with another protected status, by paying an employee of one sex a wage rate less than the rate paid to an employee of a different sex for substantially similar work (based on a composite of skill; effort, which may include consideration of shift work; and responsibility), regardless of job title. A wage rate differential is permissible if at least one of the following factors accounts for the entire wage rate differential:
   1. A seniority system;
   2. A merit system;
   3. A system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production;
   4. The geographic location where the work is performed;
   5. Education, training, or experience to the extent that they are reasonably related to the work in question; or
   6. Travel, if the travel is a regular and necessary condition of the work performed.
2. The Act requires the employer to keep records of job descriptions and wage rate history for each employee for the duration of employment plus two years after the end of employment.
3. The Act requires providing notice of job openings and promotional opportunities, including the hourly or salary rate or range, and a general description of all of the benefits and other compensation offered to the hired applicant.
4. Prohibits using pay history for prospective employees by requiring that an employer shall not seek the wage rate history, or rely on the wage rate history, of a prospective employee to determine a wage rate.  Discrimination or retaliation against a prospective employee for failing to disclose wage rate history is prohibited.

UCCS Human Resources, CU Legal Counsel, and campus Executive Leadership are leading the review, analysis, and implementation in this area.​​​

The law went into effect on 1/1/2021, HR is continuing work to develop and update the policies, procedures, tools, resources and guidelines related to the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.  HR has analyzed the Aon findings and are in the process of addressing impacted employees. We will continue outreach and updates to campus groups as information becomes available.

Job descriptions and salary history records need to be kept by the employer for the lifecycle of the employee plus 2 years after. All of our staff position descriptions are archived to OnBase centrally, so departments don't need to maintain those. Job postings (which also serve like a job description) are also archived by HR. Salary history records will be maintained through HCM and central payroll records.

Yes, that is correct. Beginning 1/1/2021, all job postings must specify the pay rate or range. Using the general statement that pay is commensurate with experience will not comply with Colorado’s new equal pay law.

Yes. To do that, we will need to have a consistent campus practice documenting the factors we use to set pay in the range, and experience will likely be one of those.

UCCS HR began this project prior to the EPA passing. To align substantially similar jobs for staff, we have identifying similar work within CU’s Job Families and establishing Functional Areas and assigning a new comp code. These functional areas are a more specific layer underneath the job code and working title. It doesn't change the job code or working title. It allows us to align similar work within a job code since our job codes are currently very broad. For faculty and research faculty, “substantially similar” work is based on the academic/research discipline as well as the nature of the grant where applicable.

A promotional opportunity must be posted any time there is a job code change resulting in a higher level of responsibility and scope.