---
type: "Bill"
title: "Wage Theft Employee Misclassification Enforcement"
description: "The act updates and modifies laws pertaining to the payment of wages and employee misclassification, and the enforcement procedures and remedies for violations of those laws, as follows:"
jurisdiction: "us/states/co"
legislature: "Colorado General Assembly"
session: "2022A"
identifier: "SB 22-161"
citation: "Colorado SB 22-161 (2022A)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jessie Danielson", "Meg Froelich", "Monica Duran", "Sonya Jaquez Lewis"]
version_count: 11
action_count: 16
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2022-03-21T06:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2022-06-03T06:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1b724169-34ae-4f3a-8ba8-f5f405c53f57"
source_url: "https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-161"
source_hash: "03ddb554b9be8fa683829d049103413972116219364794c9bcebb43740a9e287"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-co"]
---

# Colorado SB 22-161 (2022A) — Wage Theft Employee Misclassification Enforcement

The act updates and modifies laws pertaining to the payment of wages and employee misclassification, and the enforcement procedures and remedies for violations of those laws, as follows:

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Committee Amendment** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2022a_sb161_h_app_004.pdf)
2. **Engrossed (05/02/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_eng.pdf)
3. **Final Act (05/20/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_enr.pdf)
4. **Introduced (03/21/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_01.pdf)
5. **PA1 (04/21/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_s_blt_02.pdf)
6. **PA2 (05/02/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_s_blt_app_01.pdf)
7. **PA3 (05/05/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_h_app_01.pdf)
8. **Reengrossed (05/03/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_ren.pdf)
9. **Rerevised (05/10/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_rer.pdf)
10. **Revised (05/05/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022A/bills/2022a_161_rev.pdf)
11. **Signed Act (06/03/2022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2022a_161_signed.pdf)

## Votes

- BILL — **20–15** (pass) · upper
- BILL — **41–24** (pass) · lower
- REPASS — **20–15** (pass) · upper
- CONCUR — **35–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Jessie Danielson — primary (person)
- Meg Froelich — primary (person)
- Monica Duran — primary (person)
- Sonya Jaquez Lewis — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-06-03T06:00:00+00:00** Governor Signed `executive-signature`
- **2022-05-20T06:00:00+00:00** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2022-05-20T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the Speaker of the House
- **2022-05-20T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2022-05-10T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Considered House Amendments - Result was to Concur - Repass
- **2022-05-10T06:00:00+00:00** House Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-05-06T06:00:00+00:00** House Third Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2022-05-05T06:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee
- **2022-05-05T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Appropriations Refer Amended to House Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2022-05-04T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Business Affairs & Labor Refer Unamended to Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2022-05-03T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In House - Assigned to Business Affairs & Labor `introduction`
- **2022-05-03T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-05-02T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee, Floor
- **2022-05-02T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Appropriations Refer Amended to Senate Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2022-04-20T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Business, Labor, & Technology Refer Amended to Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2022-03-21T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Business, Labor, & Technology `introduction`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1b724169-34ae-4f3a-8ba8-f5f405c53f57`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Colorado legislature records).