Colorado household chefs: what a household owes in 2027
A briefing for households in Colorado and the business managers who look after them.
Colorado sets its household pay rules in the same order that covers every other workplace, the COMPS Order, and it gives a private chef no live-in or domestic exemption. On 1 January 2027 the state minimum wage rises to $15.71 an hour, and the salary a chef must earn before they can be treated as exempt from overtime is proposed to rise to $59,864 a year. The salary figure deserves the closer reading, since a chef paid well above it can still be owed overtime.
The figures for 2027
- Minimum wage: $15.71 an hour from 1 January 2027, up from $15.16, as announced by the Department of Labor and Employment in August 2026.
- Exempt salary: $1,151.23 a week, or $59,864 a year, up from $57,784. This figure is proposed and becomes final when the Department adopts its 2027 pay order after a public hearing on 2 November 2026.
- Highly compensated threshold: $134,694 a year, also proposed.
Denver and the City of Boulder set higher minimum wages of their own. If a role pays close to the state figure, your city’s own ordinance is the one to check.
Overtime in a private home
A household chef in Colorado is paid one and a half times the regular rate for work past forty hours in a week, past twelve hours in a workday, or past twelve consecutive hours, whichever gives the chef more. In a private home, the order leaves out only a casual babysitter hired directly by the family and a property manager who lives on the property they manage, so a chef who cooks for the home is covered whether they live in or go home each evening.
Salary and overtime
A salary above $59,864 makes a chef eligible to be treated as exempt, but whether they are exempt depends on the work itself. The executive exemption requires a role that spends at least half the week supervising, that directs at least two full-time employees, and that can hire and dismiss them or effectively recommend it. The highly compensated route requires office or non-manual work as the main duty. A chef whose days are spent cooking for the family does not usually meet either test at any salary, and remains owed overtime however generous the pay.
Living in
- Time on duty is paid. On a shift under twenty-four hours, any time a chef must be ready to work is paid time, including time asleep.
- Sleep on longer shifts. On a shift of twenty-four hours or more, up to eight hours of sleep may be left unpaid only with an express agreement, proper sleeping quarters and at least five hours of possible sleep. Interruptions count as work, and if they prevent five hours of sleep the whole period is paid.
- The room. Lodging can count toward the minimum wage only by voluntary written agreement, and only up to $100 a week for a house or apartment. For a chef on a salary well above the minimum wage it makes no difference to what is owed.
Before 1 January
- Give the chef a copy of the COMPS Order or its poster within their first month, as the order requires of a private home with one employee. A household that misses this cannot count the room toward pay or treat the chef as exempt from overtime.
- If the household treats a salaried chef as exempt, ask your payroll provider whether the duties of the role support it, and confirm the salary against the final 2027 figure once it is adopted.
- For a chef whose work is mainly cooking, keep a record of hours and pay overtime as the order sets it, whatever the salary.
When you are ready to begin a search, tell us about your household.
This briefing is general information, not legal advice. Your payroll provider or employment adviser should confirm how these rules apply to your household.