Biological Technicians in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,003
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$11,397
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,348
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
$59,400
Kept after tax
$48,003
Worth in national money
$47,348
State rank
10
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for biological technicians. The middle earner takes $59,400, which ranks 10 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 3.29% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 281 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $59,400 the take-home is $48,003, which is worth about $47,348 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $63,180, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado ranks 10 of 51 states publishing a median for biological technicians, at $59,400 — about 3.29% 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.
- Biological technicians ranks 281 of 491 occupations in Colorado by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for biological technicians on its $59,400 median: $48,003 retained after tax becomes $47,348 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $63,180 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Biological Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,480 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,380 |
| This salary | $59,400 |
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 | $48,003 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,908 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,010 |
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 | $57,029 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,850 |
| 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 $59,400. The published range is $49,480 up to $79,380, 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 $48,003, worked from $59,400. 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 281 of 491.
- Two cautions on $47,348, the adjusted value of that $59,400 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 281 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for biological technicians in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,480 to $79,380. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Colorado take-home of $48,003, on $59,400 for work ranking 281 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 281 of 491 in the state.
- This $47,348 adjusted figure, worked from $59,400, 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 281 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 281 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 $63,180, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $49,480 and the top tenth $79,380, so most people doing this work in Colorado sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $47,348 of national purchasing power.
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 $48,003 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 $63,180. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($49,480 to $79,380) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Colorado rather than a national figure.
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 $47,348 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 $48,003 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.