Colorado's 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.

Boulder campus Human Resources, CU Legal Counsel, and campus Executive Leadership are leading the review, analysis, and implementation in this area.  Use our Equal Pay Act Questions & Feedback contact form to submit questions and feedback.

Please bookmark our Equal Pay Act project web page and check back often for news and updates.  Also, please check back for upcoming informational presentations for in person sessions you can attend.

Please complete our Equal Pay Act Questions & Feedback form. 

Between now and 1/1/2021, HR will continue working with campus stakeholders to develop and update the policies, procedures, tools, resources and guidelines needed. We will identify issues and bring recommendations to campus leadership for resolution planning, and we’ll continue outreach and updates to campus groups as information becomes available.

This work represents a shift in budget planning.  Pay equity is a campus-wide strategy. The first step is to identify where issues exist. Then campus leadership can work strategically to develop a funding plan to address the issues campus-wide and with impacted units.

Job descriptions and salary history records need to be kept by the employer for the duration of employment plus 2 years after the end of employment. 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 through CU Boulder Jobs. Campus hiring departments need to maintain job posting records for jobs that are not posted in CU Boulder Jobs, such as for student assistants. 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.

It's a little of each. Some of our policies and practices are system-wide, and those are being reviewed as well as campus-specific processes and policies.

Yes, however 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. The campus system we will use for this is under development.

To align substantially similar jobs for staff, we will be categorizing similar work within a new comp code that exists within each broad payroll job title.  It doesn't change the job code or working title. It allows us to group substantially similar work within a job code since our job codes are currently very broad. See the Compensation Framework Initiative page for further information. For faculty and research faculty, “substantially similar” work is based on the academic/research discipline as well as the nature of the project or grant where applicable.

This is not part of the equal pay act. The equal pay act does not require pay ranges and does not dictate where an employee is paid in a range. The equal pay act only requires that employees performing substantially similar work be paid similarly in relation to each other and in relation to their education, experience, performance, skill, effort and responsibility, among other factors.

Yes, the law requires us to post all openings and this includes temporary staff and retirees. Hiring departments should submit their temporary staff posting requests through the Avature Position Management Portal. A member of the HR Talent Acquisition team will work with you to ensure an efficient process. 

Great question, and we are finding a number of these on our campus. Some jobs are unique. There might not be an equal pay comparison for a unique job. However, as we build our compensation structure going forward, we can ensure we have competitive market pay rates for these jobs.

No. For Lecturers, Avature (CU Boulder Jobs) is an option but not required. If not posted through CU Boulder Jobs, hiring departments need to ensure that an individual posting or standard blanket announcement is publicly posted and includes the hiring rate or range, a description of any benefits if applicable, and contact information on how to be considered. This can be accomplished through an announcement posted on the college, school or department's website. The hiring department must maintain a record of the announcement/posting.