Colorado Paystub Generator

Two fields break payroll templates that were designed for other states: the 0.44% FAMLI premium withheld from the worker’s own wages and the Colorado annual withholding allowance, which a worker can reset by handing you a DR 0004 instead of leaving you with only a federal W-4. This Colorado paystub generator asks for both, then runs the flat 4.40% state rate through the arithmetic the Colorado Department of Revenue prescribes in its DR 1098 worksheet.

The result is a paystub anyone can read line by line: gross pay, the state income tax line, the employee FAMLI premium as its own entry, federal FICA and a Denver head tax line when the address calls for one.

What the Colorado Paystub Generator Asks You For

The form runs in one pass and each field below changes something on the finished document.

Employer and Employee Details Colorado Names by Statute

Employer Name and Street Address

Colorado’s pay statement rule wants the employer’s address on the document itself, not just on the envelope.

Employee Name and Social Security Number

Give the employee name, with the full Social Security number or the last four digits.

Work Location, Which Drives the Local Tax Lines

This drives whether a Denver, Glendale, Greenwood Village or Sheridan occupational privilege tax line appears and which local wage floor the tool flags.

Pay Period, Rate and Hours

Pay Frequency and Inclusive Period Dates

Pick the frequency, then enter the inclusive start and end dates of the pay period.

Regular, Overtime and Double Time Rows

Enter a rate and hours, or a salary. Hourly entries take separate regular, overtime and double time rows, because Colorado runs daily overtime as well as weekly.

Withholding and FAMLI Choices Before You Preview

Withholding Basis: W-4 Status Plus Any DR 0004

Federal W-4 filing status, plus whether a Colorado DR 0004 was filed and, if so, the allowance and any extra per period amount from it.

FAMLI Treatment: Deducted or Employer Paid

Deduct the employee’s 0.44% share, or mark that the employer is covering it.

Preview the paycheck stub on screen, correct anything wrong, then download the PDF. Nothing is charged before the preview.

What the FAMLI Line on a Colorado Pay Stub Means

How the 0.88% Premium Splits Between Employer and Employee

Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program is funded by a premium of 0.88% of wages in 2026, split evenly at 0.44% from the employer and 0.44% from the employee. Statute caps the worker’s share at half the total premium, so 0.44% is a ceiling, not a target. Premiums stop at the federal Social Security taxable maximum, which is $184,500 for 2026.

Three FAMLI Details a Spreadsheet Usually Gets Wrong

Employers Under Ten Employees Owe No Employer Share

They still withhold and remit the employee’s 0.44%, so the tool can produce a pay stub with a FAMLI employee deduction and no matching employer accrual.

When the Employer Chooses to Pay the Whole 0.88%

Tick that box and the employee deduction line disappears rather than showing a zero, which is what a reviewer expects to see.

When the Premium Stops Mid Year for High Earners

Once year to date wages pass $184,500, the tool stops the deduction instead of running it all year.

When Colorado FAMLI Premiums and Wage Reports Are Due

Premiums and wage reports go to the FAMLI Division quarterly, due 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January.

DR 0004 or W-4: Which Allowance the Generator Applies

What the Tool Does When No DR 0004 Was Filed

Colorado does not require a state withholding certificate. If the employee never fills one out, the DR 1098 worksheet tells you to apply a standard annual withholding allowance based on the federal W-4 filing status: $11,000 for married filing jointly or qualifying surviving spouse and $5,500 for everyone else in 2026. Both figures rose by $500 and $1,000 respectively for 2026 after the federal changes in Public Law 119-21.

2026 DR 0004 Allowances for an Employee With One Job

A DR 0004 overrides that default. On the 2026 form, an employee working one job may claim one of three standard allowances on line 2, or run Worksheet 1 for a custom figure.

Single or Married Filing Separately: $14,000

The lowest of the three standard figures on the 2026 form.

Head of Household: $22,000

The middle standard allowance, for an employee filing as head of household.

Married Filing Jointly or Qualifying Surviving Spouse: $30,000

The largest standard allowance available without running Worksheet 1.

Line 3 of the same form adds a flat dollar amount of extra Colorado withholding per pay period.

Flipping the DR 0004 Switch Inside the Generator

In the generator, “DR 0004 on file” is a yes/no switch. Answer yes and you type the allowance from line 2 and any line 3 amount and the state tax line recalculates. Answer no and the tool falls back to the $5,500 or $11,000 default. That single switch is the difference between a Colorado check stub that matches the employee’s year end return and one that quietly over-withholds all year.

Setting the Hourly Rate for the City Where Hours Were Worked

Why Denver and Colorado Springs Sit Four Dollars Apart

Colorado runs a statewide floor set each year by the PAY CALC Order, plus a handful of local floors adopted under authority the legislature granted in 2019. The gap is wide: an employer in Colorado Springs works from the state figure, while one six blocks inside Denver’s boundary works from a rate roughly four dollars higher. Edgewater, a one square mile city in Jefferson County, sits between them and from 1 January 2026 uses a larger tip offset than the state allows, under HB25-1208.

Why the Generator Will Not Guess Your City From a ZIP Code

The generator does not guess your jurisdiction from a ZIP code, because Colorado coverage turns on hours physically worked inside a boundary rather than on a mailing address. It flags the floor for the location you pick and asks you to confirm the rate before the pay stub is built. The full rate table and the four hours per week coverage rule sit on the Colorado pay stub and wage law hub.

Worked Example: A Daily Pay Stub

Here is a full daily stub for a single-filer employee in Denver earning $8.00 an hour, with 8 regular hours and no overtime for the day.

On very small daily amounts the fixed-rate lines round to just a few cents each, but they still have to appear as their own line. Federal withholding depends on the employee's W-4, so treat that line as illustrative.

Worked Example: A Semimonthly Denver Paycheck Stub

An office manager in Denver is paid $2,450 semimonthly, files single on her W-4 and has not filed a DR 0004.

Every Deduction Line on a $2,450 Semimonthly Salary

What Changes the Day She Hands In a DR 0004

Now suppose she hands in a DR 0004 claiming the $14,000 standard allowance for a single filer with one job. Annualized wages of $58,800 less $14,000 leaves $44,800; at 4.40% that is $1,971.20 a year, or $82.13 per pay period. Her Colorado withholding drops by $15.59 every payday, about $374 across the year, with the same tax bill in April. That is the practical reason to ask about the DR 0004 before you generate anything.

Why the Denver Head Tax Lands on Only One Stub a Month

Denver’s occupational privilege tax applies to an employee earning at least $500 in Denver in a calendar month, so on a semimonthly schedule the $5.75 lands on one of the two stubs, not both.

Colorado Check Stub Codes and What Each Abbreviation Means

Payroll systems abbreviate. These are the deduction and tax codes you are most likely to meet on a Colorado paycheck stub. Where a label depends on the software rather than state law, it says so.

Two Codes That Mean the Document Needs Correcting

CO SUI or CO UI ER in the Employee Column

Colorado unemployment insurance is an employer cost. Sitting in the employee deduction column, it is an error to fix before the stub is issued.

An Aurora Occupational Privilege Tax Line in 2026

Aurora repealed its occupational privilege tax effective 1 January 2025, so no 2026 document should carry that line.

Who Uses a Colorado Payroll Stub Generator

Small Employers Below the FAMLI Ten Employee Line

Restaurants along Denver’s Federal Boulevard, Western Slope contractors and single location retailers often sit under ten employees, owe no employer FAMLI share and still have to document the employee’s 0.44%.

Household Employers in Boulder and Jefferson County

Nannies and caregivers in Boulder County and Jefferson County are covered for FAMLI and paid sick leave and their employers rarely run payroll software.

Self Employed People and 1099 Contractors

Independent contractors are not automatically in FAMLI, though they may elect coverage, so a contractor’s payment record should not carry employer withholding lines.

Seasonal Operators in Summit and Eagle County

Summit County and Eagle County ski and hospitality employers run short bursts of weekly payroll and need records that survive an off season audit.

Colorado Specific Mistakes to Avoid on a Pay Stub

FAMLI Deduction Errors

• Deducting more than 0.44% for FAMLI. Statute caps the employee share at half the total premium.
• Continuing the FAMLI deduction past $184,500 of year to date wages.

Withholding and Local Tax Errors

• Applying the $5,500 default allowance to an employee who filed a DR 0004 claiming $14,000, or the reverse.
• Charging the employer’s $4.00 Denver occupational privilege tax portion to the employee. It does not belong in the deduction column.

Rate and Document Errors

• Using a Denver hourly rate for hours actually worked at a Lakewood location, or the reverse.
• Producing a pay stub with no employer street address, or no pay period start and end dates. Colorado names both.

Using This Colorado Paystub Tool Responsibly

A generated document is only as accurate as the payroll record behind it. Use this tool to reproduce or reissue a pay stub for wages actually earned and actually paid and keep the underlying time records: Colorado expects an employer to hold pay statement information for three years. If your figures are incomplete, ask the employer or the payroll provider for the original before producing a replacement.