Denver — Colorado has enacted a law that prohibits employers in the state from deducting from workers’ wages the costs of certain personal protective equipment.
S.B. 26-160, signed by Gov. Jared Polis (D) on June 3, contains a few exceptions. Among them:
- Nonspecialty safety-toe protective footwear, including steel-toe shoes and boots, or nonspecialty prescription safety eyewear “when the employer permits such footwear or eyewear to be worn off the jobsite”
- Built-in metatarsal protection provided at an employee’s request
- Logging boots
- Everyday clothing such as long-sleeved shirts, long pants, street shoes and normal work boots
- “Ordinary clothing,” skin creams or other items used solely for protection from weather, such as winter coats, jackets, gloves, parkas, rubber boots, hats, raincoats, ordinary sunglasses and sunscreen.
The law also requires that certain slaughterhouses and other meatpacking employers provide “reasonable access to restrooms.”
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The restroom access provision applies to employers with 500 or more workers. Under the law, the state may fine out-of-compliance employers up to $200 per employee per week.
