Does Colorado license HVAC contractors?

Not at state level. The Division of Professions and Occupations runs a State Electrical Board and a State Plumbing Board, and Title 12 has no article for the mechanical trades, so the license that lets your company work is issued by a city or a regional building department. What the state regulates still touches you: if the company holds an electrical or plumbing registration for line-voltage or water piping work, each depends on a master who must be full time and may serve only one contractor at a time, and that master's duty to notify the board within 15 days after termination runs against the individual, not the company.

I am the examinee on our Pikes Peak license. What happens if I leave at closing?

RBC201.9 requires the contractor to notify the Building Official immediately and gives 30 calendar days to acquire a qualified replacement. The code says the license terminates automatically after that, with re-registration or reexamination and Board of Review approval required; PPRBD's own examinee-change form describes the consequence as automatic suspension instead. Confirm which one applies before drafting a closing condition on either. In the meantime the department administratively locks the license once it is notified, no new permits may be obtained, and only the examinee can renew, so a departure can also strand a renewal date.

We are buying the assets into a new entity. What has to be redone?

In Denver, a change of legal entity requires a new license within 30 days, so the buyer files a fresh application rather than an amendment, and a change of name or address is reportable within 15 days. At PPRBD the examinee filing carries a certificate of liability insurance, a workers' compensation certificate or state rejection of coverage, a Certificate of Good Standing from the Colorado Secretary of State, and a letter signed by both the examinee and the principal of the new company. Time the insurance move carefully: RBC201.7.2 requires an endorsement obliging the carrier to notify the department at least 10 calendar days before any reduction or cancellation, and a lapse, cancellation or reduction is cause for automatic suspension until coverage is timely reinstated.

Can we hold our technicians to a non-compete after the sale?

Only the ones who clear the number. Colorado enforces a non-compete against a worker only at or above the highly compensated threshold, $130,014 under the 2026 PAY CALC Order, and a customer non-solicitation covenant only at 60 percent of that same figure. Both are tested when the covenant is signed and again when it is enforced. A technician below either figure is not restrained by the covenant they signed, whatever the covenant says.

Does the wage threshold apply to my own non-compete as the seller?

No. C.R.S. 8-2-113(3)(c) takes a covenant for the purchase and sale of a business, or of the assets of a business, outside the section, subject to one limit on a minority holder whose share came as compensation for services, so a seller's covenant is not measured against $130,014. Where you are also the Denver certificate holder or the PPRBD examinee, the covenant is the smaller half of what the buyer needs from you: the employment term that lets a successor be seated is the half that keeps the license.

HVAC & Mechanical in Colorado

Colorado has no state HVAC license, so the one a buyer acquires is Denver's or Pikes Peak's.

Colorado does not issue an HVAC contractor license. The Division of Professions and Occupations regulates electricians and plumbers, Title 12 carries no article for the mechanical trades, and the credential a buyer is actually acquiring is municipal: a Denver license, a Pikes Peak Regional Building Department license, or several of each across the Front Range. Each one is issued against a named individual rather than against the company, which is the ordinary shape of a mechanical license and, in a state with nothing above it, the only credential a buyer can diligence. The closing itself starts the clocks: Denver requires a new license within 30 days of a change of legal entity, and Pikes Peak gives 30 calendar days to replace a departing examinee. Whether the technicians who hold the customer relationships can be restrained at all is settled by what they earn.

Denver-Aurora-Lakewood (Denver metro) / Colorado Springs / Fort Collins-Loveland (Northern Colorado) / Greeley / Weld County

Denver and Pikes Peak issue what Colorado does not

Denver's contractor license application makes the same point from the municipal side: before applying, an applicant must hold a supervisor certificate, employ a supervisor certificate holder, or hold a Colorado electrical or plumbing license. Those are the only two state credentials the city names, because they are the only two the state issues, under articles 12-115 and 12-155 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. So a buyer cannot run one state lookup on a Colorado HVAC company.

Denver issues its mechanical supervisor certificates by trade: Heating and Ventilating Class A Supervisor, Heating and Ventilating Class B Supervisor for residential work only, Refrigeration Class A and Class B Supervisor, Boilermaker Supervisor, Gas Service Contractor Supervisor, Hot Water Supervisor, and Steam and Hot Water Supervisor. A company running commercial heating alongside commercial refrigeration depends on more than one certified individual, and losing either of them is a licensing event, not a staffing one. Where the certificate holder is not an owner, officer, partner, member or sole proprietor, Denver wants a letter on company letterhead naming that person Supervisor of Record, signed by an owner, officer, partner, member or the sole proprietor. A change of control changes who can validly sign that letter. The Supervisor Statement of Responsibility that accompanies the application is signed by the supervisor alone, and Denver publishes no rule requiring either document to be refiled when ownership changes, so ask Contractor Licensing in writing whether a refile is expected.

The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department tiers its mechanical licenses by scope: Mechanical Contractor A for commercial work, B for residential, and a C class divided into gas piping, commercial refrigeration, residential maintenance, repair and replacement, and residential remodeling. Its application takes those as H-A, H-B and H-C1 through H-C4. Two further classes sit in the same code family and neither is an HVAC credential, D for manufactured buildings and E for elevators and escalators, and D is not offered on the mechanical application at all, so a schedule built from the code rather than from the form will list licenses no HVAC company holds. One PPRBD license covers unincorporated El Paso County together with Colorado Springs, Fountain, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls, Monument, Palmer Lake, Woodland Park and, since the 2nd Printing took effect, the Town of Calhan.

Fuel gas piping sits outside the plumbing license. Section 12-155-103(8) defines plumbing as work on potable water supply, fixtures, traps, drainage and vent piping, and fuel gas piping is defined separately and handled through the Colorado Fuel Gas Code. In the Pikes Peak region it is the C-1 class above, a credential of its own, so a buyer arriving with a Colorado plumbing platform does not already hold it. Where the company does carry the state electrical and plumbing registrations for line-voltage and water piping, each depends on a master who must be full time and who, under C.R.S. 12-155-108 for plumbing and 12-115-110(5) for electrical, may serve only one contractor at a time. That buyer cannot spread one master across both entities, and the duty to notify the board within 15 days after termination sits on the individual, not the company, so a departing qualifier can start a state clock the buyer never sees.

A change of name or address must be reported to Denver Contractor Licensing within 15 days, and a change of legal entity requires a new license within 30 days, so an asset purchase into a new entity is a fresh Denver application on a 30-day fuse, not an amendment to the license the target holds. Adding or removing owners or officers takes a notarized letter or meeting minutes on company letterhead signed by an existing owner or officer, and where ownership has changed completely to a new individual or entity, Denver asks for a copy of the buyout agreement, so the confidentiality terms have to permit that copy going to Denver Contractor Licensing.

At Pikes Peak the license locks before it terminates

RBC201.9 gives a Pikes Peak contractor 30 calendar days. When the examinee's relationship or employment ends the contractor must notify the Building Official immediately, and the license terminates automatically unless a qualified replacement is acquired inside the period, with re-registration or reexamination and approval by the Board of Review required. The clock starts on the examinee's last day, so a stock purchase that leaves the entity, the license number and the open permits untouched still runs it.

Once PPRBD receives formal notice that an examinee is no longer with the company, it administratively locks the license and gives the former company 30 days to request inspections for open and A-status permits on work already completed but not yet inspected. No new permits may be obtained, so the lock leaves the company able to close out finished work and unable to sell an install. A-status permits under the existing contractor ID number must be satisfactorily completed before a new license activates, so a backlog of uninspected jobs is a direct delay on the buyer's ability to trade, and unresolved permits follow to the new contractor ID unless the former company seats a replacement who accepts responsibility for them.

Only the examinee is able to renew the contractor's license. A qualifier who leaves can therefore strand a renewal date that falls after closing, and the department will not process that renewal while administratively closed permits or administrative fines are outstanding.

Under RBC111.2.2 the Board of Review is the authority for granting and revoking licenses and registrations, and RBC201.11.7 gives it the power to reinstate a license or the right to serve as the examinee. The Licensing Committee only recommends. Its filing cut-off is three weeks before its meeting, supplemental documents are due 10 calendar days out with no exceptions considered by staff, the Board of Review meets the following week, and the license is not issued until after the Board approves. An approved applicant then has 60 days to claim it before the file is discarded and the application starts over.

Two things about the grace period are unresolved on the face of PPRBD's own documents. The code and the examinee-change form both speak of acquiring or replacing the examinee within the period, and neither says whether Board of Review approval has to land inside it; read strictly, a filing cut-off three weeks before the Licensing Committee and Board approval the week after that consumes most of the 30 days, and read loosely, a completed filing may hold the license. The same two documents disagree on the consequence, the code calling it automatic termination with reexamination and Board approval required and the form calling it automatic suspension. A curable suspension and a full reexamination are different prices, so both questions should go to PPRBD licensing in writing before anyone drafts a closing condition against either reading. Wraith runs Colorado engagements alongside an affiliated firm, and on a Pikes Peak deal that letter goes out at the start of a sell-side process. Either reading survives the same preparation: name and file a second qualified examinee before signing.

What $130,014 does to a technician roster

Colorado decides who can be restrained by what they earn. Under C.R.S. 8-2-113 a covenant not to compete binds a worker only where annualized cash compensation meets the highly compensated threshold, and a customer non-solicitation covenant only where it reaches 60 percent of that figure. The 2026 PAY CALC Order, 7 CCR 1103-14, sets the threshold at $130,014 annually at Rule 1.2.1(G). The Division publishes no separate non-solicitation figure, because the statute sets that covenant's floor at sixty percent of the same threshold. The threshold is re-indexed each January.

Run the service roster against both numbers before anyone prices customer retention on paper covenants. A field technician who clears neither is bound by neither: the non-compete is void and so is the customer non-solicitation covenant, which is the one that matters here, because the technician is the person the customer knows. A dispatcher or install lead earning between the two figures can be held to the non-solicitation covenant and cannot be held to a non-compete at all. Whether the technician holding the customer relationship can be restrained is a question about their W-2, not about the drafting.

The threshold then applies twice. The worker must earn it when the covenant is entered into and again when the employer seeks to enforce it, while the benchmark figure itself is fixed at execution, the greater of the amount in force on August 10, 2022 or the amount in force when the covenant was signed. Later indexing does not retroactively void a covenant that was valid when papered. A compensation change does. Where a supervisor or master signs at closing and is moved to a reduced consulting arrangement a year later, the covenant that helped price the deal can fail the second test on the buyer's own restructure.

None of this reaches the seller's own covenant. C.R.S. 8-2-113(3)(c) takes a covenant for the purchase and sale of a business, or of the assets of a business, outside the section entirely, subject to the limit Senate Bill 25-083 placed on a minority holder whose share came as compensation for services. Where the founder is also the examinee or the Denver certificate holder, the buyer needs two instruments over the same person: a covenant out of the purchase agreement, which the thresholds never reach, and an employment term long enough to seat a successor. Only the second one keeps the license.

Questions Colorado sellers ask

Does Colorado license HVAC contractors?: Not at state level. The Division of Professions and Occupations runs a State Electrical Board and a State Plumbing Board, and Title 12 has no article for the mechanical trades, so the license that lets your company work is issued by a city or a regional building department. What the state regulates still touches you: if the company holds an electrical or plumbing registration for line-voltage or water piping work, each depends on a master who must be full time and may serve only one contractor at a time, and that master's duty to notify the board within 15 days after termination runs against the individual, not the company.
I am the examinee on our Pikes Peak license. What happens if I leave at closing?: RBC201.9 requires the contractor to notify the Building Official immediately and gives 30 calendar days to acquire a qualified replacement. The code says the license terminates automatically after that, with re-registration or reexamination and Board of Review approval required; PPRBD's own examinee-change form describes the consequence as automatic suspension instead. Confirm which one applies before drafting a closing condition on either. In the meantime the department administratively locks the license once it is notified, no new permits may be obtained, and only the examinee can renew, so a departure can also strand a renewal date.
We are buying the assets into a new entity. What has to be redone?: In Denver, a change of legal entity requires a new license within 30 days, so the buyer files a fresh application rather than an amendment, and a change of name or address is reportable within 15 days. At PPRBD the examinee filing carries a certificate of liability insurance, a workers' compensation certificate or state rejection of coverage, a Certificate of Good Standing from the Colorado Secretary of State, and a letter signed by both the examinee and the principal of the new company. Time the insurance move carefully: RBC201.7.2 requires an endorsement obliging the carrier to notify the department at least 10 calendar days before any reduction or cancellation, and a lapse, cancellation or reduction is cause for automatic suspension until coverage is timely reinstated.
Can we hold our technicians to a non-compete after the sale?: Only the ones who clear the number. Colorado enforces a non-compete against a worker only at or above the highly compensated threshold, $130,014 under the 2026 PAY CALC Order, and a customer non-solicitation covenant only at 60 percent of that same figure. Both are tested when the covenant is signed and again when it is enforced. A technician below either figure is not restrained by the covenant they signed, whatever the covenant says.
Does the wage threshold apply to my own non-compete as the seller?: No. C.R.S. 8-2-113(3)(c) takes a covenant for the purchase and sale of a business, or of the assets of a business, outside the section, subject to one limit on a minority holder whose share came as compensation for services, so a seller's covenant is not measured against $130,014. Where you are also the Denver certificate holder or the PPRBD examinee, the covenant is the smaller half of what the buyer needs from you: the employment term that lets a successor be seated is the half that keeps the license.

Where these facts come from

Everything above that is a rule rather than a judgment is listed here with its publisher and the date it was checked. Licensing, tax and non-compete rules change, sometimes without much notice. None of this is legal or tax advice, and it is not a substitute for your own counsel and CPA.

The Division of Professions and Occupations within the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies administers the State Electrical Board under article 12-115 of the Colorado Revised Statutes and the State Plumbing Board under article 12-155. Title 12 contains no corresponding article for the mechanical trades, and the Division administers no HVAC, mechanical or refrigeration contractor program.
Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Division of Professions and Occupations. Checked 2026-09.
The cited page is the electrical program's own and establishes only that the State Electrical Board sits in the Division; the plumbing program is at dpo.colorado.gov/Plumbing. The absence of a state mechanical or HVAC credential is a negative, established by the Division's list of regulated professions and occupations and by the structure of Title 12 rather than by any single agency statement, and corroborated from the municipal side by Denver's requirement that a contractor license applicant hold a supervisor certificate, employ a supervisor certificate holder, or hold a Colorado electrical or plumbing license. dpo.colorado.gov blocks automated requests, so confirm the page in a browser.
C.R.S. 12-155-108 provides that no person may operate as a plumbing contractor until registered with the State Plumbing Board, that the contractor must be, or employ full-time, a master plumber, who shall be in charge of the supervision of all plumbing work performed by the contractor, that 'A master plumber shall be responsible for no more than one plumbing contractor at a time,' and that the master shall be required to notify the board within fifteen days after his or her termination. Section 12-155-103(8) defines plumbing as work on potable water supply, fixtures, traps, drainage and vent piping. Fuel gas piping is defined separately at Section 12-155-103(2) and is handled through the Colorado Fuel Gas Code at Section 12-155-106 rather than within the scope of the plumbing license.
Colorado Revised Statutes 12-155-103 and 12-155-108, republished by Public.Law. Checked 2026-09.
Public.Law is a republisher rather than the official text and its copy is current only through Fall 2025. Senate Bill 26-078, signed May 26, 2026, amended definitions in both the Electrical and Plumbing practice acts without changing the quoted subsections; confirm against a 2026-current text with Colorado counsel. Public.Law's copy of C.R.S. 8-2-113 is stale and is not relied on for the non-compete material on this page.
C.R.S. 12-115-110(5) requires registration with the State Electrical Board before engaging in business as an electrical contractor and requires the contractor to employ at least one licensed master electrician in charge of supervision of all electrical work. No holder of a master's license shall be named as the master electrician for more than one contractor, a named master shall be actively engaged in a full-time capacity with that contracting company, and the qualifying master must notify the board within fifteen days after termination.
Colorado Revised Statutes 12-115-110, republished by Public.Law. Checked 2026-09.
Republisher rather than official text, current only through Fall 2025. The exclusivity, full-time and fifteen-day notice language sits at subsection (5); confirm the current text before relying on it.
Denver's Contractor License Application states that before applying for a contractor's license, an applicant must hold a supervisor certificate, employ a supervisor certificate holder, or hold a Colorado electrical or plumbing license; that the supervisor certificate holder must submit a Supervisor Statement of Responsibility with the license application; and that if the supervisor certificate holder is not a company owner, officer, partner, member or sole proprietor, the supervisor must bring a letter on company letterhead stating that he or she will be the Supervisor of Record for the company for the type of license being applied for, signed by an owner, officer, partner, member or the sole proprietor. It further states that a change of name or address of a licensee must be reported to Contractor Licensing within 15 days, and that a change of legal entity of a licensee will require a new license within 30 days.
City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development, Contractor License Application. Checked 2026-09.
The form carries a September 25, 2018 revision date; confirm its deadlines against Denver's current application before a closing calendar is built on them. Denver publishes no rule requiring the Supervisor Statement of Responsibility or the Supervisor of Record letter to be refiled when ownership changes, and no such requirement is asserted here.
To add or remove owners or officers, Denver Contractor Licensing requires a notarized letter or meeting minutes on company letterhead signed by an existing owner or officer, and where ownership has changed completely to a new individual or entity, a copy of the buyout agreement. A change to the registered business name requires a new license application signed by the licensed company's designated owner or officer, together with the owner's photo identification and Colorado Secretary of State filings matching the corporate structure.
City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development, Contractor Licensing. Checked 2026-09.
This page carries the ownership, buyout-agreement and name-change requirements only. The supervisor certificate prerequisite, the Supervisor Statement of Responsibility and the Supervisor of Record letter come from Denver's Contractor License Application and are cited to it separately.
Denver issues mechanical supervisor certificates by trade rather than as a single mechanical credential. The mechanical certificates include Heating and Ventilating Class A Supervisor, Heating and Ventilating Class B Supervisor for residential work only, Refrigeration Class A Supervisor, Refrigeration Class B Supervisor for residential work only, Boilermaker Supervisor, Gas Service Contractor Supervisor, Hot Water Supervisor, and Steam and Hot Water Supervisor.
City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development, Contractor Licensing supervisor certificates. Checked 2026-09.
Certificate names are taken from Denver's supervisor certificate listings, which are introduced as inclusive rather than exhaustive, so the page does not state a count. The scope of work attaching to each class is deliberately not stated here beyond the residential-only limitation Denver puts in the certificate names themselves; confirm the current list and the scope of each certificate with Contractor Licensing before a license schedule is built.
The 2023 Pikes Peak Regional Building Code, 2nd Printing, became the code in force within the Department's jurisdiction on June 30, 2026. RBC201.9, Continuation of Business; Reexamination, provides: 'The respective contractor's rights to do business shall be dependent upon the continued retention of the examinee or registrant as an employee or principal. Whenever the examinee's relationship or employment is terminated, the contractor shall immediately notify the Building Official. Upon termination, there shall be a thirty (30) calendar day grace period in order to acquire a qualified replacement before automatic termination of the license or registration, and re-registration or reexamination and approval by the Board of Review are required.' RBC111.2.2 makes the Board of Review the duly authorized authority for granting and revoking all licenses and registrations, and RBC201.11.7 provides that the Board of Review may reinstate a license or registration or the right to serve as a contractor or as the examinee. RBC204.2.1 through RBC204.2.5 define Mechanical Contractor A, B, C, D and E, with the C class divided into gas piping, commercial refrigeration, residential maintenance, repair and replacement, and residential remodeling; D is manufactured buildings and E is elevators and escalators. RBC201.7.2 requires each policy to carry an endorsement obliging the carrier to notify the Department at least ten calendar days before any reduction or cancellation, and provides that the lapse, cancellation or reduction of insurance shall be cause for automatic suspension of the license until the required coverage is timely reinstated. RBC201.8.2 requires a contractor to provide the Department with updated contact information within thirty calendar days of a change. The preface states that the Department's jurisdiction covers the unincorporated areas of El Paso County together with the participating incorporated municipalities, which include Colorado Springs, Fountain, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls, Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodland Park; the 2nd Printing adds Appendix K for the Town of Calhan, adopted by Ordinance No. 2026-10.
Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, 2023 Pikes Peak Regional Building Code, 2nd Printing. Checked 2026-09.
RBC201.9 and Table RBC201.7 are textually identical in the 1st and 2nd Printings; the citation is to the 2nd Printing because the 1st was superseded on June 30, 2026. The jurisdiction list is introduced with 'include,' so the page names the participating jurisdictions without asserting a count. Neither RBC201.9 nor the Department's examinee-change form states whether Board of Review approval must be obtained inside the thirty-day grace period, and the Department has published no guidance reconciling the grace period with the Licensing Committee calendar. Confirm the point in writing with PPRBD licensing before drafting a closing condition against either reading.
PPRBD's Mechanical Contractor License Application lists the license classes as H-A, H-B, H-C1, H-C2, H-C3, H-C4 and H-E. It states that the deadline to submit the completed application and all required documents to PPRBD is three (3) weeks prior to the Licensing Committee meeting, that supplemental documents are due ten calendar days before the meeting with no exceptions considered by staff, that license approvals, conditions or denials are recommendations by the Licensing Committee and must be approved by the Board of Review, which meets the following week, and that the license will not be issued until after approval by the Board of Review. An approved applicant then has sixty days to claim the license, after which an unclaimed license or registration is voided, the entire application file is discarded, and the applicant must reapply.
Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, Mechanical Contractor License Application. Checked 2026-09.
Mechanical Contractor D is defined at RBC204.2.4 but does not appear on the current mechanical application, which is why a license schedule should be built from the application rather than from the code. H-E is the elevator and escalator class and is not an HVAC credential. Neither the application nor the Department states how often the Licensing Committee sits, so the page does not describe the cycle as monthly.
PPRBD's Examinee Changes License/Registration Application states that once the Department receives formal notice that an examinee is no longer with the company and is transferring the license or registration, PPRBD administratively locks the license or registration and gives the examinee's former company 30 days to request inspections for any open or A-status permits for work already completed but not yet inspected, and that no new permits may be obtained. A-status permits under the existing contractor ID number must be satisfactorily completed prior to activating a new license or registration and obtaining new permits, and unresolved permits transfer to the new contractor ID unless the former company seats a new examinee who accepts responsibility for them. Failure to replace the examinee within 30 days from the date of his or her disassociation will result in the automatic suspension of a license or registration. A change of examinee is subject to the Licensing Committee's recommendation and approval by the Board of Review. The filing requires a certificate of liability insurance, a workers' compensation certificate or state rejection of coverage, a Certificate of Good Standing from the Colorado Secretary of State, and a letter signed by both the examinee and the principal of the new company stating the former and new company names, the effective date, and responsibility for unresolved permits.
Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, Examinee Changes License/Registration Application. Checked 2026-09.
This form describes the consequence of failing to replace the examinee as automatic suspension, where RBC201.9 in the adopted code describes it as automatic termination with re-registration or reexamination and Board of Review approval required. The two documents are not reconciled and the difference is material, since a suspension is curable and a termination requires reexamination.
PPRBD's licensing FAQ states that only the examinee is able to renew the contractor's license or registration, and that outstanding administratively closed permits or administrative fines must be resolved before the examinee can renew.
Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, licensing FAQ. Checked 2026-09.
The renewal blocker named in the FAQ is administratively closed permits or administrative fines. A-status permits block activation of a new license under the examinee-change form; the two blockers are separate and are not merged on this page.
C.R.S. Section 8-2-113(2) makes a covenant not to compete void unless the worker earns annualized cash compensation equivalent to or greater than the threshold amount for highly compensated workers both at the time the covenant is entered into and at the time it is enforced, and permits a covenant prohibiting the solicitation of the employer's customers where the worker earns at least 60 percent of that threshold amount, measured at the same two points. Section 8-2-113(2)(c)(II) fixes the threshold amount as the greater of the amount in effect as of August 10, 2022 or the amount in effect at the time the covenant not to compete is executed by the parties. Section 8-2-113(3)(c) excludes from the section a covenant for the purchase and sale of a business or the assets of a business.
Colorado General Assembly, Office of Legislative Legal Services, C.R.S. Title 8. Checked 2026-09.
Cited from the 2024 Colorado Revised Statutes. Subsection (3)(c) was amended by Senate Bill 25-083 effective August 6, 2025, so the 2024 text is superseded on that point and the amendment is cited separately. The threshold amount is set annually by the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics rather than by the statute.
The 2026 PAY CALC Order, 7 CCR 1103-14, adopted December 8, 2025 and effective February 1, 2026, sets the highly compensated employee level at $130,014 annually at Rule 1.2.1(G), derived from the executive, administrative and professional salary level of $57,784 multiplied by 2.25.
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. Checked 2026-09.
The Division publishes no separate customer non-solicitation figure. Sixty percent of the published $130,014 is $78,008.40, which is arithmetic on the threshold rather than a published number, which is why the page states it as just over $78,000 and not to the cent. The threshold is re-indexed each January, so the figure governing a covenant is the one in force when that covenant was executed. A temporary 2026 order adopted on December 12, 2025 carried the same figures and lapsed when this permanent order took effect; guidance citing the temporary order is not current. cdle.colorado.gov blocks automated requests, so verify the document in a browser or through the Secretary of State's copy of 7 CCR 1103-14.
Senate Bill 25-083, chapter 366, was signed by the Governor on June 3, 2025 and took effect on August 6, 2025. It amended C.R.S. Section 8-2-113(3)(c) to limit the duration of a covenant given by an individual who holds a minority ownership share received as equity compensation or otherwise in connection with services rendered.
Colorado General Assembly, SB 25-083. Checked 2026-09.
June 3, 2025 is the signature date and August 6, 2025 the effective date; the two are commonly conflated. The amendment is described as applying to agreements entered into or renewed on or after the effective date, which is not stated in the legislature's official summary at this URL and should be confirmed with Colorado counsel. A pre-existing covenant that is renewed, extended or re-executed as part of closing mechanics is not necessarily grandfathered, so the check is the covenant's current papering rather than only its original signing date.

Page last reviewed 2026-09-07.

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