Atmospheric and Space Scientists in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$78,568
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$26,102
24.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$77,497
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
$104,670
Kept after tax
$78,568
Worth in national money
$77,497
State rank
18
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Colorado pays atmospheric and space scientists around $104,670 at the midpoint, 18 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Colorado reports, atmospheric and space scientists comes in at 77 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $104,670, tax leaves $78,568, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $77,497 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $115,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- For atmospheric and space scientists the Colorado median is $104,670, ranking 18 of 47 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Atmospheric and space scientists ranks 77 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 atmospheric and space scientists — median $104,670 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $78,568 retained, $77,497 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $115,630 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Atmospheric and Space Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $76,110 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $165,500 |
| This salary | $104,670 |
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 | $78,568 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,465 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,365 |
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 | $99,130 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,174 |
| 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 $104,670. The published range is $76,110 up to $165,500, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $78,568 take-home in Colorado comes from $104,670. 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 77 of 491.
- Two cautions on $77,497, the adjusted value of that $104,670 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 77 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for atmospheric and space scientists in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $76,110 to $165,500. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $78,568, from $104,670, 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 77 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 18 of 47 for it.
- This $77,497 adjusted figure, worked from $104,670, 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 77 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 77 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 $115,630 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $76,110 at the bottom tenth to $165,500 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 $77,497 — 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 $78,568 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 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 $115,630. 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 ($76,110) and the ninetieth ($165,500) 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 $77,497 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 $78,568 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.