Colorado and Denver minimum wage 2027: what restaurants pay from 1 January

If your restaurant is inside Denver's city limits, the state rate on the poster by the time clock is not the one you pay. Colorado has a state minimum, four local ones, and a state tip credit fixed at $3.02 that does not grow when the wage does.

From 1 January 2027, Colorado's minimum wage is $15.71 an hour, and $12.69 for tipped workers. Denver's minimum wage is $19.84 an hour, with a tipped minimum of $16.82 for food and beverage workers on the state's local table. In both, tips can cover no more than $3.02 of each hour, and only if the worker actually receives them. Last checked: 5 November 2026.

What is Colorado's minimum wage in 2027?

$15.71 an hour from 1 January 2027, and $12.69 for tipped workers. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) announced the figures on 13 August 2026. The rise is 3.6% from $15.16, and 41.5% above the 2019 rate of $11.10 (CDLE release).

The state constitution adjusts the wage each year for inflation, using the consumer price index for all urban consumers. Denver uses a different index, the one for urban wage earners, which is one reason the two rates drift apart.

Four places set their own rate. CDLE's local minimum wage table showed these on 5 November 2026:

Each local figure matches the local government's own page. Denver Labor lists $19.84 for 2027. The City of Boulder lists $18.17 from 1 January 2027 and caps the tip credit at $3.02, which gives $15.15. Boulder County lists $17.43 for its unincorporated areas. Edgewater is the odd one out: its 2026 tipped wage on CDLE's table is $13.50, a credit larger than $3.02, and its 2027 tipped wage was still "TBD", so ask the city before you set it.

What is Denver's minimum wage in 2027?

$19.84 an hour from 1 January 2027, up 55 cents from $19.29. Denver's Department of Finance calculates the rise each year and Denver Labor, part of the Auditor's Office, enforces it.

For tipped staff, the 2027 figure is $16.82. Denver's page caps the tip credit at $3.02 an hour, "only in the food and beverage industry", and CDLE's local table lists $16.82, which is $19.84 less that $3.02. Denver's page still states the tipped figure only for 2026: $16.27 "as long as they receive $3.02 in documented tips".

Two Denver rules owners miss:

• The tipped rate is for qualified food and beverage workers. Denver's page describes it for "qualified tipped workers in the food and beverage industry". If a role sits outside that, pay $19.84 and check with Denver Labor before you set a lower rate.
• Tips must be documented. Denver says employers "may only reduce hourly wages for actual tips received", and in an investigation you may be asked to prove it. Keep tip records per person, per shift; Denver Labor publishes a free Tip Credit Tracker on its minimum wage page.

How the tip credit works in general, and the notice you must give staff before taking it, is in our tip credit guide.

How does the $3.02 tip credit work for a Denver server?

Worked example: a Denver server, 30 hours in a January week.

• Full minimum: 30 x $19.84 = $595.20.
• Cash wage you pay: 30 x $16.82 = $504.60.
• Tips needed to take the full credit: 30 x $3.02 = $90.60 for the week.
• A slow week with $70 in documented tips: you top up $20.60.

The credit is small. In Colorado and Denver, tips can cover only about a fifth or less of the minimum, against 58% in Michigan and 84.5% in Virginia (see our state-by-state 2027 table). That means each January rise lands almost entirely on your payroll, tipped staff included. In 2027 the tipped rate rises by exactly the same 55 cents as the full rate, both statewide and in Denver.

What salary makes a Colorado manager exempt in 2027?

Colorado sets its own exempt salary, well above the federal $684 a week. For 2027 it is proposed at $1,151.23 a week ($59,864 a year), and the salary must also cover the minimum wage for every hour worked. That figure is in CDLE's proposed 2027 Pay Calc Order, published on 30 September 2026, with a public hearing on 2 November 2026 and an effective date of 1 January 2027 "if adopted" (CDLE rules, proposed and adopted). On 5 November the final order had not been posted. Check it before you set January salaries.

The same hearing covered a proposed COMPS Order #41, which would define a "tip" by what a reasonable customer would understand. CDLE's statement says this departs from its earlier guidance, and it could decide when a mandatory service charge counts as a tip. It is a proposal, not law, on 5 November.

Salary is only half the test: the role must also be genuinely managerial. Our restaurant manager salary guide covers the duties test and a job description you can copy.

How does Denver's $19.84 compare with what restaurant jobs pay?

Denver's restaurants already pay above the new floor on average. We compared the 2025 average weekly wage per full-service restaurant job with one 40-hour week at the 2027 minimum for the area.

Our analysis of the BLS QCEW 2025 annual averages, full-service restaurants (NAICS 722511), private sector, downloaded 5 November 2026. Rows are the counties with the most jobs, except Douglas County (5,937 jobs, $707), left out for space.

What it shows:

• Denver's average full-service job paid $875 a week in 2025, $81 more than 40 hours at the 2027 city minimum. Average pay per job rose 3.1% that year.
• Of the large counties in the table, only Weld paid less per job than 40 hours at $15.71. Across all 47 counties with published data, 24 did, and the median county was $623.
• The QCEW counts part-time jobs and, under most state laws, includes tips in wages. Because Colorado lets tips cover only $3.02 an hour, most of a server's pay floor is cash wage, and the tips sit on top of it.

What does the 2027 rise cost a Denver restaurant?

Worked example: six kitchen staff on 32 hours a week at the minimum, and eight servers on 25 hours at the tipped minimum.

The same restaurant outside Denver pays the same $12,068.68 more, because the state rates also rise 55 cents. The difference is the starting point: every hour already cost $4.13 more in Denver than at the state rate.

If you add a service charge to cover the rise, Colorado has its own disclosure rules for it. Our junk-fee laws guide covers them, and the guide to raising menu prices in 2027 covers the alternative. Check with an adviser for your situation.

A Colorado 1 January 2027 checklist

COLORADO AND DENVER 1 JANUARY 2027 CHECKLIST

Location: [ ] Denver  [ ] City of Boulder  [ ] Edgewater
          [ ] Unincorporated Boulder County  [ ] Rest of Colorado

[ ] Full rate for every hourly employee at least:
    $19.84 Denver / $18.17 City of Boulder / $19.84 Edgewater /
    $17.43 unincorporated Boulder County / $15.71 elsewhere
[ ] Tipped food and beverage staff: cash wage at least
    $16.82 Denver / $15.15 City of Boulder / $12.69 state
    (Edgewater: wait for the city's figure)
[ ] Tip credit never more than $3.02 an hour (state, Denver,
    Boulder), and only against documented tips actually received
[ ] Tipped roles checked: only food and beverage workers
    on the tipped rate in Denver
[ ] Tip credit notice re-issued with the 2027 figures
[ ] Weekly tip records kept per person, per shift (Denver's
    Tip Credit Tracker works)
[ ] Staff just above the minimum reviewed, decision recorded
[ ] Exempt managers: final 2027 Pay Calc Order salary checked
    (proposed $1,151.23 a week)
[ ] New CDLE poster and Denver work site poster displayed
[ ] Service charge wording checked against Colorado's rules
[ ] Menu prices reviewed for the items that carry the cost

CDLE publishes its required posters on its posters page, and Denver Labor publishes its mandatory work site poster on its minimum wage page.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

TablePort's Staff Management add-on does not have a Colorado preset, but you can set the limits that matter in plain words.

1. Type your rules into the autopilot as you would brief a manager, such as maximum hours per person or a weekly labor cap, and they become rules for the draft schedule.
2. Check labor as a share of forecast sales against your target for each January day in the planner before you publish.
3. Staff clock in on the till with a PIN, so attendance and approved timesheets show the hours each tipped worker was paid for, and the daily report shows tips per staff member to set against the $3.02 credit.

One honest limit: there is no Colorado or Denver preset, and TablePort does not set pay, run payroll or calculate tip-credit top-ups. See the staff rota page.