Art Directors in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$75,482
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$24,508
24.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$74,453
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
$99,990
Kept after tax
$75,482
Worth in national money
$74,453
State rank
17
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for art directors. The median is $99,990, ranking 17 of 46 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Colorado. It ranks 96 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $99,990 the take-home is $75,482, which is worth about $74,453 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $112,040, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for art directors: a median of $99,990, ranking 17 of 46. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Within Colorado, art directors ranks 96 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for art directors on its $99,990 median: $75,482 retained after tax becomes $74,453 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $112,040 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $73,110 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $99,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $162,610 |
| This salary | $99,990 |
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 | $75,482 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,173 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,022 |
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 | $94,743 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,699 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Colorado earn less than $99,990. The published range is $73,110 up to $162,610, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Colorado's $75,482, worked from $99,990. 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 96 of 491.
- Two cautions on $74,453, the adjusted value of that $99,990 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Colorado. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 96 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for art directors in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $73,110 to $162,610. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Colorado take-home of $75,482, on $99,990 for work ranking 96 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 96 of 491 in the state.
- This $74,453 adjusted figure, worked from $99,990, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 96 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 96 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $112,040 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $73,110, the highest tenth $162,610, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $74,453 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Colorado's own levy, $75,482 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $112,040. 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 ($73,110) and the ninetieth ($162,610) 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 $74,453 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 $75,482 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.