Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,972
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$6,638
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,523
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
$39,610
Kept after tax
$32,972
Worth in national money
$32,523
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $39,610, which ranks 4 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 10.55% above the national middle.
- Within Colorado this is lower-paid work. Of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 455. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $39,610 the take-home is $32,972, which is worth about $32,523 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $41,740, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado ranks 4 of 51 states publishing a median for cleaners of vehicles and equipment, at $39,610 — about 10.55% 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.
- Against every occupation Colorado reports, cleaners of vehicles and equipment ranks 455 of 491, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for cleaners of vehicles and equipment on its $39,610 median: $32,972 retained after tax becomes $32,523 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $41,740 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,350 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,440 |
| This salary | $39,610 |
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 | $32,972 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,007 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,473 |
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 | $38,323 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,990 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $39,610 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,350 and the ninetieth is $49,440 — 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 $32,972, worked from $39,610. 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 455 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $32,523, the adjusted value of that $39,610 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 455 of 491 in the state.
- The Colorado median of $39,610 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,350 to $49,440. 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 $32,972, on $39,610 for work ranking 455 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 455 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $32,523 — the adjusted value of that $39,610 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 455 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 $41,740 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,350 and the top tenth $49,440, 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 $32,523 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 $32,972 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 $41,740. 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 ($35,350 to $49,440) 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 $32,523 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 $32,972 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.