Chief Executives in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$150,094
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$63,276
29.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$148,048
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
$213,370
Kept after tax
$150,094
Worth in national money
$148,048
State rank
19
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Colorado pays chief executives around $213,370 at the midpoint, 19 of 46 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Colorado. It ranks 4 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $213,370, tax leaves $150,094, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $148,048 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $240,440, since top earners drag the number up.
- For chief executives the Colorado median is $213,370, ranking 19 of 46 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.
- Within Colorado, chief executives ranks 4 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for chief executives — median $213,370 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $150,094 retained, $148,048 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $240,440 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Chief Executives
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $88,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $213,370 |
| Top tenth earn over | $402,230 |
| This salary | $213,370 |
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 | $150,094 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $158,774 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$15,342 |
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 | $201,585 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$20,159 |
| 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 $213,370. The published range is $88,400 up to $402,230, 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 $150,094, worked from $213,370. 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 4 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $148,048 uses one figure for the whole of Colorado. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 4.
- Reported values are medians; for chief executives in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $88,400 to $402,230. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Colorado take-home of $150,094, on $213,370 for work ranking 4 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 4 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $148,048, worked from $213,370, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Colorado address, on work sitting at 4 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 $240,440 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $88,400, the highest tenth $402,230, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $148,048 rather than its face figure.
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, $150,094 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 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 $240,440. 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 ($88,400) and the ninetieth ($402,230) 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 $148,048 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 $150,094 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.