Colorado heat and cold law for workers 2026 counts injuries first, it sets no rule yet
Colorado heat and cold law for workers 2026, H.B. 26-1272, does not give any worker a new temperature trigger or a mandatory rest break today, a detail that only shows up when the enacted bill is read directly rather than trusted from how it was framed when it passed. Governor Jared Polis signed the bill on June 4, 2026, and it took effect statewide on August 12, 2026, as chapter 384 of Colorado session law. It orders 1 state agency, the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics inside the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, to start collecting data on temperature related injuries, illnesses and emergencies at Colorado worksites, and to eventually publish a plan employers can choose to use. No employer carries a new legal requirement because of this law today.
What the state must do, and by when
By January 15, 2027, the division must begin collecting worksite temperature injury, illness and emergency data from 3 places at once, a new public reporting platform on its own website, health related occurrence data the Department of Public Health and Environment already collects, and records from the Division of Workers Compensation and the Center for Improving Value in Health Care. By July 1, 2028, the division must publish a model plan the law itself names the Temperature Related Injury and Illness Prevention Plan, shortened to TRIIPP, a document meant to recommend protections such as water access, shade and worker acclimatization, meaning time for a worker to adjust to working in heat. The law does not make adopting the TRIIPP mandatory for any employer, and the division must review and update it at least every 5 years after that. The general fund gives the division 76,651 dollars to do this work. Counting from the date the law took effect, the state has just under 23 months to get that model plan built, a gap this site calculates using the 2 dates H.B. 26-1272 itself states.
The 6 counts every duty H.B. 26-1272 assigns to the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, begin collecting worksite data, build a reporting platform, pull existing health data, pull workers compensation and Center for Improving Value in Health Care data, publish the model plan, and review it every 5 years. The 0 counts new requirements this law places on any employer today.
Show the numbers
| Duties the law assigns to the state division right now | 6 |
| New requirements the law places on employers today | 0 |
Only agricultural workers have an actual temperature number today
Agricultural workers are the only Colorado workers with a real number attached to their job, 80 degrees Fahrenheit, under a separate rule that already existed before this law and that H.B. 26-1272 leaves in place rather than extends. The new law reaches further on paper, covering employers subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, agricultural employers, state and local governments, and any entity that contracts with 5 or more independent contractors in Colorado a year. But none of those other categories gets a temperature threshold, a required rest break or a required written plan from this law right now. The division can adopt further enforceable rules later, based on whatever the data collection turns up, but that is a future possibility this law creates, not a current requirement it imposes.
3 counts the categories of harm the division must track, temperature related injury, illness and emergency. 4 counts where it must pull that data from, its own new reporting platform, existing Department of Public Health and Environment data, and records from the Division of Workers Compensation and the Center for Improving Value in Health Care. 5 counts the years before the published model plan must be updated again. All 3 numbers are counted directly from the text of H.B. 26-1272.
Show the numbers
| Categories of harm the division must track | 3 |
| Places the division must pull that data from | 4 |
| Years before the model plan must be updated again | 5 |
Why the bill sponsors say Colorado needs the data first
The bill had 4 prime sponsors, Senator Lisa Cutter, Senator Mike Weissman, Representative Meg Froelich and Representative Elizabeth Velasco, and their joint release after the signing explains the gap this data collection is meant to close. No Colorado specific count of how many workers are hurt by heat or cold currently exists in the record, which is exactly the gap the new reporting platform is meant to fill by 2027.
Every worker deserves safe conditions. But that's not happening in jobs where workers are exposed to extreme heat and cold.
Lisa Cutter, Senate Assistant Majority Leader, Colorado State Senate, a prime sponsor of the bill. Source 3.
The federal government has failed to step in to create clear guidelines on safe temperatures for working conditions.
Mike Weissman, Senator, Colorado State Senate, a prime sponsor of the bill. Source 3.