Governor Polis Vetoes Colorado’s Surveillance Pricing and Wage-Setting Bill
Bayan Biazar, Associate
On June 2, 2026, Governor Jared Polis (“Governor Polis”) vetoed House Bill 26-1210, titled Concerning Limiting the Use of Intimate Personal Data to Make Inferences that Impact a Person’s Financial Position (the “Bill”), halting what would have been the nation’s first broad statutory ban on the use of “surveillance data” to set individualized prices and wages. In his veto letter, Governor Polis explained that “instead of specifically defining and targeting unethical conduct and practices, the bill takes a broader approach to capture any technology that incidentally influences a price or wage amount.” Employers should not, however, read the veto as the end of Colorado’s interest in regulating automated pricing and wage-setting tools.
Recap of the Bill
As we previously discussed,[1] the Colorado Senate passed the Bill on May 6, 2026, sending it to Governor Polis for consideration.[2] The Bill would have barred businesses from using a “price or wage-setting algorithm”[3] to analyze “surveillance data” for purposes of setting an individualized price or wage. Surveillance data was defined broadly to include information obtained through observation, inference, or surveillance of a consumer or worker relating to that person’s characteristics, online behaviors, or biometrics.[4] Violations would have been enforceable as deceptive trade practices under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (the “CCPA”), and the Bill notably included a private right of action, exposing companies to class-action risk. The Bill did carve out routine practices such as supply-and-demand pricing, group discounts and loyalty discounts.
Governor Polis’s Rationale
In vetoing the Bill, Governor Polis concluded that its scope swept too broadly, capturing routine business technology along with the conduct its sponsors sought to target. He pointed to Colorado’s recently revised artificial intelligence law, Senate Bill 26-189, as already addressing related concerns by requiring greater transparency around automated decision-making tools that affect price or wage outcomes and by confirming that use of such technology in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act can result in accountability. He also expressed discomfort with the Bill’s approach to defining acceptable consumer discounts in statute, warning that discounts not neatly captured by the carve-outs could become subject to enforcement under the CCPA.
Business groups, including the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, had lobbied for the veto, arguing the Bill’s broad definitions could sweep in everyday tools like cart-abandonment discounts and loyalty pricing, and that its private right of action would invite abusive litigation. Bill sponsors Senator Iman Jodeh and Representative Javier Mabrey criticized the veto, citing polling showing strong public support for restricting the use of personal data in pricing and wage decisions.
Employer Considerations
Employers are not, for now, subject to a standalone statutory ban on algorithmic wage-setting tied to surveillance data. But Governor Polis expressly pointed to Colorado’s revised AI law as the vehicle he views as already addressing these concerns. Employers using automated or algorithmic tools in employment-related decision-making should continue monitoring compliance obligations there. Bill sponsors have also signaled they intend to bring a revised proposal back in a future session, and similar efforts are gaining momentum in other states. Employers using data analytics, statistical modeling, or AI-driven tools to inform individualized compensation decisions should use this window to audit those practices and evaluate potential exposure under both the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and Colorado’s AI law.
Campbell Litigation will continue to monitor the issue and provide updates on any renewed legislative efforts.
[1] See https://www.rockymountainemployersblog.com/blog/2026/5/14/colorado-legislators-seek-to-prohibit-the-use-of-surveillance-data-to-set-prices-and-wages-with-proposed-bill for Campbell Litigation’s prior discussion on the Bill.
[2] https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/HB26-1210.
[3] A wage-setting algorithm is any technology, software, program, machine-based system, or computational process that: uses statistical modeling, data analytics, artificial intelligence or other data to analyze surveillance data and is a substantial factor in setting, offering, or determining a price or wage offered to an individual. See Bill, p. 5.
[4] See id.