Accountants and Auditors in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$73,530
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$23,500
24.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$72,527
Colorado costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Colorado — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$97,030
Kept after tax
$73,530
Worth in national money
$72,527
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for accountants and auditors. The middle earner takes $97,030, which ranks 7 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 15.95% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Colorado reports, accountants and auditors comes in at 103 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $97,030, tax leaves $73,530, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $72,527 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $103,150, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado ranks 7 of 51 states publishing a median for accountants and auditors, at $97,030 — about 15.95% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Accountants and auditors ranks 103 of 491 occupations by median in Colorado, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for accountants and auditors — median $97,030 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $73,530 retained, $72,527 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $103,150 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Accountants and Auditors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $97,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $162,160 |
| This salary | $97,030 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Colorado | $73,530 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $77,091 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,804 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $91,968 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,399 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $97,030 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $60,760 and the ninetieth is $162,160 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Colorado's $73,530, worked from $97,030. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 103 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $72,527, the adjusted value of that $97,030 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 103 of 491 in the state.
- The Colorado median of $97,030 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $60,760 to $162,160. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Colorado take-home of $73,530, on $97,030 for work ranking 103 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 103 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $72,527 — the adjusted value of that $97,030 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 103 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $103,150, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $60,760 at the bottom tenth to $162,160 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Colorado run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $72,527 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Colorado adds its own income tax on top — which is why $73,530 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Colorado is $103,150. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($60,760) and the ninetieth ($162,160) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Colorado's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $72,527 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $73,530 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Colorado income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.