Business Teachers, Postsecondary in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,118
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$17,092
21.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,285
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
$78,210
Kept after tax
$61,118
Worth in national money
$60,285
State rank
46
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Colorado. The middle earner gets $78,210. That is 46 of 51 states, and about 21.06% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 154 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $78,210, tax leaves $61,118, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $60,285 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $90,800, since top earners drag the number up.
- For business teachers, postsecondary, Colorado sits in the lower band at $78,210, ranking 46 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 21.06%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 154 of 491 in Colorado places business teachers, postsecondary in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for business teachers, postsecondary — median $78,210 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $61,118 retained, $60,285 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $90,800 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Business Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $166,020 |
| This salary | $78,210 |
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 | $61,118 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,851 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,422 |
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 | $74,325 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,490 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $78,210 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,830 and the ninetieth is $166,020 — 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 $61,118, worked from $78,210. 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 154 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $60,285, the adjusted value of that $78,210 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 154 of 491 in the state.
- The Colorado median of $78,210 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,830 to $166,020. 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 $61,118, on $78,210 for work ranking 154 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 154 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $60,285 — the adjusted value of that $78,210 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 154 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 $90,800, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $37,830 and the top tenth $166,020 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Colorado costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $60,285 rather than its face figure.
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 $61,118 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 $90,800. 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 ($37,830) and the ninetieth ($166,020) 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 $60,285 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 $61,118 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.