Colorado’s 2025 legislative session exposed some sharp fault lines within the Democratic Party when it comes to labor issues.

Though Democrats hold solid majorities in both the state Senate and the House of Representatives, measures backed by progressive lawmakers to protect workers from extreme heat and to prohibit the use of surveillance-based algorithms to set wages were among the bills that died in the face of opposition from moderates.

The session’s biggest priority for labor groups, a bill aimed at making it easier for workers to unionize, made it through both chambers of the Legislature but is expected to be vetoed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis at the behest of business groups. The party’s progressive and moderate wings clashed over several other proposals, including a bitter fight over changes to tipped minimum wage laws.

Here are the major labor bills lawmakers enacted before adjourning their regular legislative session May 7.

Worker Protection Act

Senate Bill 25-5 would repeal the state’s Labor Peace Act, a 1943 law that erected a unique obstacle to workers seeking to form a union in Colorado.

Under the law, unionizing workers, after winning a simple majority vote to form a union, must hold a second election and obtain 75 percent approval to negotiate so-called union security — a requirement that all represented workers pay dues, even if they don’t support the union. The Labor Peace Act is effectively a modified version of the so-called “right to work” rules enacted by many conservative states.

Democratic majorities in the Legislature approved SB-5, dubbed the Worker Protection Act. But Polis said earlier this year that he would only sign the bill if it met the approval of business groups like the Colorado Chamber of Commerce. When talks between the two sides stalled, lawmakers passed SB-5 anyway.

Polis has indicated he will veto the bill. He has until June 6 to do so. Labor leaders have vowed to revive the Worker Protection Act next year.

Local tipped minimum wages

As originally introduced, House Bill 25-1208 would have meant steep wage cuts for tipped workers in Denver and Boulder, forcing those cities to dramatically increase their “tip credits” — the dollar amount that employers can subtract from the minimum wage paid to tipped workers, as long as tips make up the difference.

The bill’s sponsors, Denver Democratic Representatives Steven Woodrow and Alex Valdez, pitched the wage cuts as necessary relief for a struggling restaurant industry. But they backed off that plan after intense pushback from labor and progressive groups and a series of long, contentious committee hearings at the Capitol.

Instead, the amended version of HB-1208 would allow, but not require, local governments to increase their tip credits. In theory, a local government could raise the minimum wage for non-tipped employees as high as it wished, while maintaining a tipped minimum wage of $11.79 an hour, the statewide minimum.

Polis has not yet acted on the bill.

Wage theft crackdown

House Bill 25-1001 would make a variety of changes aimed at combating wage theft, including raising the cap on wage-theft claims from $7,500 to $13,000, streamlining the process of adjudicating claims and increasing penalties on employers for repeated and “willful violations” of the law.

“Colorado workers lose hundreds of millions of dollars per year in wages due to theft from bad-acting employers,” Senator Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat and HB-1001 sponsor, said in a statement on the bill’s passage. “With this legislation, Colorado’s labor force would more quickly and easily access their owed wages so they are fairly compensated for the work they do.”

The bill was approved by Democrats on party-line votes in the House and Senate. Polis has yet to act on the bill.

Rollback of farmworker protections

Senate Bill 25-128 would repeal a provision in state law guaranteeing access by “key service providers” — including medical personnel, attorneys, legal advocates and clergy — to farmworkers on private agricultural properties during off hours. That protection was passed by Democratic majorities in the Legislature in 2021 as part of a larger piece of legislation known as the Farmworkers Bill of Rights.

Sponsors, including Democratic Senator Dylan Roberts of Avon and Republican Senator Byron Pelton of Sterling, said the “cleanup bill” was needed after a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found a similar access provision enacted in California unconstitutional. The bill would leave intact the vast majority of the wide-ranging 2021 farmworkers’ rights measure.

Some farmworker advocates opposed SB-128, arguing the law’s protections for health care provider access weren’t covered by the Supreme Court ruling and should be left in place. The bill passed with bipartisan support, with a handful of progressive Democrats in both chambers opposed. Polis has not yet acted on it.

Prohibiting non-compete agreements for medical workers

Senate Bill 25-83 would extend Colorado’s prohibition on “restrictive employment agreements,” including non-solicitation and non-compete agreements, to cover physicians, dentists and advanced practice nurses.

Those professions would no longer be included in the category of “highly compensated workers” that are exempted from the non-compete ban under current law. Bipartisan majorities in the Legislature approved SB-83, with a handful of Republicans opposed.

Polis has yet to act on the bill.