On August 19, 2024, the Colorado Supreme Court announced that it will decide what statute of limitations applies to claims brought under the Colorado Minimum Wage Act – the Colorado Wage Claim Act ’s two or three-year statute of limitations (depending on whether the violation is willful) or Colorado’s general six-year statute of limitations.

Colorado state and federal courts have reached contrary results regarding what statute of limitations applies to claims (such as those alleging missed meal or rest breaks) brought under the Colorado Minimum Wage Act. Mirroring federal law, the Wage Claim Act expressly provides for a two or three-year statute of limitations (Section 8-4-122, C.R.S. 2023) but the statutory text of the Minimum Wage Act includes no such express limitations period. Some courts, including a divided panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals in Perez v. By the Rockies, LLC, et al.¸ in November 2023, have held that courts should not read a separate statute’s limitations period into the Minimum Wage Act and, thus, apply Colorado’s general six-year statute of limitations (Section 13-80-103.5, C.R.S. 2023). Other courts, including the majority of federal courts to decide the issue, have reached the opposite result. Those courts have explained that the Wage Claim Act and the Minimum Wage Act are part of the same statutory scheme, address the same subject matter, and should be construed together such that the Wage Claim Act’s shorter limitations period should be applied to claims brought under the Minimum Wage Act. Relatedly, defendants have argued that applying a longer statute of limitations period to Minimum Wage Act claims encourages statute shopping by plaintiffs since claims based on the same underlying conduct could be brought under either statute, depending on when the alleged violation occurred.

After the November 2023 Colorado Court of Appeals decision in Perez, By the Rockies LLC filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the Colorado Supreme Court to resolve the divergent lines of authority. Now that the Colorado Supreme Court has granted the petition (Case No. 23SC956), employers should expect clarity regarding what limitations period will apply to claims brought against them under the Colorado Minimum Wage Act. 

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