Guides

Denver restaurant pay rules (2026): wages, tips, scheduling and sick leave

Mays TeamAugust 10, 2026
The Labor law compliance switches on a Denver location's Labor & compliance card in Mays: minimum wage, overtime law, premiums, paid sick leave, food safety certificates and tips turned on, and minors' work rules off

Denver's minimum wage is $19.29 an hour in 2026, the highest in Colorado and well above the state's $15.16 (Denver). It covers all work done inside the City and County of Denver, so it reaches any employer whose staff work at least 4 hours a week in the city, not only restaurants based there. Tipped food and beverage workers can be paid $16.27, with up to $3.02 an hour of tips counted toward the rest, and the city has already set both figures for 2027.

This page puts what a restaurant or café in Denver owes in one place: the city's own rules first, then the Colorado and federal rules that apply in Denver as everywhere else in the state, two example weeks with the math shown, and what Mays does with each. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Updated October 5, 2026: these figures are still current. Denver's minimum wage is $19.29 an hour ($16.27 cash wage for tipped employees) through December 31, 2026. It rises to $19.84 ($16.82 for tipped employees) on January 1, 2027 (Denver Labor). We re-read the next minimum wage change on its official source on October 6, 2026.

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

Denver pay rules at a glance

As of August 10, 2026:

Rule

Denver

Minimum wage

$19.29 an hour, since January 1, 2026

Tipped employees: minimum cash wage

$16.27 an hour, if you take the tip credit

Maximum tip credit

$3.02 an hour

Who counts as tipped

Regularly receives more than $1.64 an hour in tips, averaged over the pay period

Next change

$19.84 minimum wage and $16.82 tipped cash wage from January 1, 2027

Overtime

1.5× the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, and after 12 hours in a day (Colorado and federal law)

Fair workweek scheduling

No Denver or Colorado law in our data

Paid sick leave

Colorado's law; see Paid sick leave below

Sources: Denver; Denver Labor; COMPS Order #40; CDLE INFO #1; CDLE INFO #6B.

Who Denver's rate covers: all work performed within the City and County of Denver (excludes employees working under 4 hours a week in Denver and those only traveling through).

Denver vs. Colorado: what the city changes

Where Denver sets a rule of its own, it applies on top of Colorado's, and an employer follows whichever gives the employee more. Here are the two side by side:

Rule

Colorado

Denver

Minimum wage

$15.16 (CDLE, 2026 COMPS poster)

$19.29 (Denver)

Tipped employees

$12.14 cash wage (CDLE, 2026 PAY CALC Order)

$16.27 cash wage (Denver Labor)

Next change (as of October 6, 2026)

$15.71 on January 1, 2027 (CDLE, 2027 minimum wage)

$19.84 minimum wage and $16.82 tipped cash wage from January 1, 2027 (Denver Labor)

Paid sick leave

1 hour per 30 hours worked (CDLE INFO #6B)

The same

Fair workweek scheduling

No state law in our data

No city law in our data

Our data has no Denver rule of its own on overtime, breaks, tip pools or food handler training, so the Colorado and federal rules below apply in Denver as they do across the state. For Colorado's rules in full, with their own worked examples, see Colorado restaurant pay rules (2026).

What you must pay tipped staff in Denver

In Colorado, a tipped employee is someone who regularly receives more than $1.64 an hour in tips, averaged over the pay period, counting tips customers add on a card (COMPS Order #40). A pool can push staff under that line: in the state's own example, a coffee shop whose pool leaves everyone less than $1.64 an hour in tips can't take a tip credit for that pay period (CDLE INFO #3C).

In a restaurant that usually means servers, bartenders, bussers and counter staff who serve customers, including baristas who get tips. Cooks and dishwashers usually aren't tipped employees. If someone works two jobs, say a server who also works prep shifts, the tip credit applies only to the hours in the tipped job (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

You can pay tipped staff a lower cash wage and count part of their tips toward the minimum wage. That is the tip credit, and it comes with conditions:

  • Pay at least $16.27 an hour in cash wages. That's the $19.29 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $3.02 (Denver Labor).
  • Cash wages plus tips must reach $19.29 for every hour worked, week by week. If tips fall short in a workweek, you pay the difference by the regular payday for that week (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Tell them first. Before you take the tip credit, tell each tipped employee, in writing or out loud: the cash wage you pay, the tip credit you claim, that the credit can't be more than the tips they actually get, that they keep all their tips except through a valid tip pool, and that the credit doesn't apply unless you've told them all this (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Overtime is figured on the full minimum wage. An overtime hour is worth 1.5 × $19.29 = $28.935. After the $3.02 tip credit, you pay at least $25.915 of it in cash wages (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • From January 1, 2027, the minimum wage is $19.84 and the tipped cash wage $16.82 (Denver Labor).

You don't have to take the tip credit. If you pay tipped staff the full $19.29 an hour, their tips are all on top and there's nothing to make up at the end of the week.

Denver's tip credit

Denver allows the tip credit only for food and beverage workers, and you have to be able to show the tips: if the city investigates, it can ask for records proving each employee received at least the credit you took (Denver Labor). From January 1, 2027 the tipped wage is $16.82 for workers who get at least $3.02 an hour in actual tips (Denver, 2027 rates).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Denver

Cooks, dishwashers, prep cooks, and cashiers or counter staff who don't get tips are paid like any other hourly employee:

  • At least $19.29 an hour for every hour worked, and at least $19.84 from January 1, 2027 (Denver Labor). No tip credit applies.
  • The same goes for a tipped employee's hours in a non-tipped job, like a server's prep shift (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Overtime is at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek or 12 in a day. At $19.29 an hour, that's $28.935 (CDLE INFO #1).

Two narrow exceptions: a minor in a youth employment program certified by the city may be paid 15% less, and the rate doesn't reach someone who works less than 4 hours a week in Denver or only travels through (Denver).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are the ones that apply in Denver as of August 10, 2026.

A server's week: when you have to top up

Sam is a server in Denver paid the $16.27 cash wage. He works 30 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $450.00 in tips and a slow one with $60.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

30

30

Cash wages (30 × $16.27)

$488.10

$488.10

Tips received

$450.00

$60.00

Cash wages + tips

$938.10

$548.10

Minimum for the week (30 × $19.29)

$578.70

$578.70

You pay on top

$0.00

$30.60

In the slow week, $60.00 in tips covers only part of the $90.60 tip credit (30 × $3.02), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $578.70 − $548.10 = $30.60. In the busy week you owe nothing extra, and every dollar of tips is still Sam's.

A cook's week with overtime

Ana is a line cook in Denver paid the minimum wage, $19.29 an hour. She works five 9-hour days: 45 hours.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$19.29

$771.60

Overtime hours (daily and weekly)

5

$28.935 (1.5 × $19.29)

$144.68

Total

45


$916.28

Colorado counts overtime by the day too: hours past 12 in a day are paid at 1.5 times the regular rate, however short the week (CDLE INFO #1). Overtime is counted by the workweek, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks: a long week earns overtime even if the next one is short (US DOL, overtime). Bonuses can change the rate too; see Time clock, breaks and overtime: first-month payroll mistakes to avoid.

Scheduling rules in Denver

We found no Denver or Colorado fair workweek law in our data: nothing here makes you post schedules a set number of days ahead or pay a premium for changing them. Breaks and overtime still shape the schedule (see below).

We found no Denver sick leave ordinance in our data, so Colorado's law is the one that applies (CDLE INFO #6B): The Healthy Families and Workplaces Act covers every employer, of any size: employees, part-time and temporary included, earn 1 hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year. Unused leave up to 48 hours carries into the next year, but the employer doesn't have to allow more than 48 hours of use in one year. Separate public-health-emergency leave applies only during a declared emergency.

Tip pools, overtime and breaks in Denver

These are Colorado's rules, with the federal ones where Colorado sets none, and they apply in Denver as they do across the state:

  • Tip pools: Colorado lets an employer require tip sharing on a pre-established basis if staff are told in advance that tips will be shared and how, customers are told in writing (a menu, table tent or receipt) before they decide on a tip, and staff get at least the full minimum wage in total pay. A pool can include untipped staff such as cooks and dishwashers only if the employer takes no tip credit for anyone. Owners, managers and supervisors can't share in it, and tips can't be used to pay card-processing fees (CDLE INFO #3C). Under federal law, the business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips, and with a tip credit a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (US DOL, tips).
  • Service charges: A mandatory charge, like a 20% "service charge", isn't a tip and can't support a tip credit; an employer can use it to fund wages. If the employer says an automatic charge goes to the staff, for example by calling it a "gratuity", it's still a service charge, but it's wages the staff must be paid (CDLE INFO #3C).
  • Overtime: Time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek, over 12 in a workday, or over any 12 consecutive hours even when they span two workdays, whichever gives the higher pay. Hours can't be averaged across weeks, and time off can't replace overtime pay. Ski-area staff serving food and beverages at on-mountain locations are exempt from the 40-hour rule only, not from the 12-hour rules (CDLE INFO #1).
  • Meal breaks: An uninterrupted, duty-free meal period of at least 30 minutes for a shift of more than 5 consecutive hours, at least 1 hour after the shift starts and 1 hour before it ends where practical. It can be unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved of all duties, allowed to leave the work site and free to do personal activities; where the work makes that impractical, the employee eats while working and is paid for that time (CDLE INFO #4).
  • Rest breaks: A paid 10-minute rest period for each 4 hours of work or major fraction of it: none for a shift of 2 hours or less, one for more than 2 and up to 6 hours, two for more than 6 and up to 10, three for more than 10 and up to 14, and so on. Rest periods go in the middle of each 4-hour stretch where practical, must be free of work but can be on site, and a rest period that isn't allowed is owed as 10 more minutes of pay (CDLE INFO #4).
  • Minors' breaks: No separate Colorado rule for minors; the adult rules above apply to them too (C.R.S. Title 8).

How Mays handles this

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For a restaurant in Denver, that means:

  • The minimum wage for the address. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays reads each location's minimum wage from its address: a location whose city is Denver gets Denver's $19.29, and tipped positions are compared with the $16.27 cash wage. It warns you when a position's default wage, someone's hourly wage or a punch is below it, and never blocks the save. It switches to the new rate on January 1, 2027 by itself, and admins get a reminder 30 and 7 days before, listing the wages below the new rate.
  • Paid sick leave per location. With Labor law compliance on, the Sick category under Scheduling → Settings → Time off & PTO accrual shows the paid sick leave law at each location's address, and Apply these rules fills in its figures, starting with at least one hour for every 30 worked (CDLE INFO #6B). Everyone who works hours earns it from approved punches, managers included, and a figure Mays doesn't have is left open for you to fill in from the official page.
  • Overtime by the address. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag, and timesheets run by pay period. Overtime is counted by the workweek, and with Labor law compliance on, by any daily, double-time and seventh-day rule Colorado sets too, which Mays reads from the location's address; the schedule's labor cost, the reports and the pay summary all include it.
  • A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, and choose which positions receive. Leave managers and admins out of the pool is on by default, so leave it on. Colorado doesn't allow taking card processing fees out of tips, so leave Deduct the card processing fee from card tips off: with Labor law compliance on, the card warns you if it's on. Each person's share appears in the Tip Payouts report and the payroll export.
  • The tip-credit make-up is yours to check. Mays doesn't compare a tipped employee's cash wages plus tips with the minimum wage, so check each workweek the way the server example above does.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer or accountant about your situation.

Run Denver payroll on the right numbers

Give each location its Denver address, turn on Labor law compliance so the minimum wage, overtime and sick leave rules follow it, and let the time clock do the counting. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

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