Civil Engineers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,425
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$24,995
24.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$75,383
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
$101,420
Kept after tax
$76,425
Worth in national money
$75,383
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for civil engineers. The middle earner takes $101,420, which ranks 16 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 0.58% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Colorado. It ranks 89 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $101,420 the take-home is $76,425, which is worth about $75,383 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $114,460, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado ranks 16 of 51 states publishing a median for civil engineers, at $101,420 — about 0.58% 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.
- Within Colorado, civil engineers ranks 89 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.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for civil engineers on its $101,420 median: $76,425 retained after tax becomes $75,383 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $114,460 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Civil Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $76,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $101,420 |
| Top tenth earn over | $165,230 |
| This salary | $101,420 |
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 | $76,425 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $80,179 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,127 |
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 | $96,084 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,844 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $101,420 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $76,810 and the ninetieth is $165,230 — 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 $76,425, worked from $101,420. 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 89 of 491.
- Two cautions on $75,383, the adjusted value of that $101,420 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 89 of 491 locally.
- The Colorado median of $101,420 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $76,810 to $165,230. 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 $76,425, on $101,420 for work ranking 89 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 89 of 491 in the state.
- This $75,383 adjusted figure, worked from $101,420, 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 89 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 89 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 $114,460 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 $76,810, the highest tenth $165,230, 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 $75,383 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, $76,425 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $114,460. 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 ($76,810) and the ninetieth ($165,230) 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 $75,383 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 $76,425 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.