Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$55,743
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$14,317
20.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,983
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
$70,060
Kept after tax
$55,743
Worth in national money
$54,983
State rank
35
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Colorado pays this job a middle wage of $70,060, 35 of 49 states and about 10.89% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 491 occupations Colorado reports figures for, this is number 201.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $70,060 the take-home is $55,743, which is worth about $54,983 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $74,780, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado's $70,060 median for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary places it 35 of 49 states, about 10.89% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- In Colorado's occupational distribution, art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary sits at 201 of 491 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary on its $70,060 median: $55,743 retained after tax becomes $54,983 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $74,780 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $70,060 |
| Top tenth earn over | $120,380 |
| This salary | $70,060 |
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 | $55,743 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $58,117 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,824 |
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 | $66,685 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,277 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Colorado earn under $70,060 and half over. The published range runs $30,910 at the tenth percentile to $120,380 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $55,743 take-home in Colorado comes from $70,060. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 201 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,983, the adjusted value of that $70,060 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 201 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $30,910 to $120,380; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $55,743, from $70,060, assumes a single Colorado filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 201 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $54,983 — the adjusted value of that $70,060 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 201 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $74,780, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $30,910 at the bottom tenth to $120,380 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $54,983 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, $55,743 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 $74,780. 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 ($30,910) and the ninetieth ($120,380) 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 $54,983 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 $55,743 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.