Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$57,517
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$15,233
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,733
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
$72,750
Kept after tax
$57,517
Worth in national money
$56,733
State rank
22
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $72,750, ranking 22 of 49 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 193 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $72,750, tax leaves $57,517, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $56,733 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $72,880, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for career/technical education teachers, secondary school: a median of $72,750, ranking 22 of 49. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 193 of 491 in Colorado places career/technical education teachers, secondary school 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 career/technical education teachers, secondary school — median $72,750 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $57,517 retained, $56,733 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $72,880 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $72,750 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,830 |
| This salary | $72,750 |
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 | $57,517 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,010 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,021 |
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 | $69,207 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,850 |
| 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 $72,750. The published range is $48,120 up to $100,830, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $57,517 take-home in Colorado comes from $72,750. 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 193 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $56,733, the adjusted value of that $72,750 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 193 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for career/technical education teachers, secondary school in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $48,120 to $100,830. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $57,517, from $72,750, 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 193 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 22 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $56,733 — the adjusted value of that $72,750 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 193 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $48,120 at the bottom tenth to $100,830 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 $56,733 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 $57,517 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($48,120) and the ninetieth ($100,830) 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 $56,733 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 $57,517 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.