Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$55,736
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$14,314
20.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,977
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
$70,050
Kept after tax
$55,736
Worth in national money
$54,977
State rank
12
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Colorado pays this job a middle wage of $70,050, ranking 12 of 51 states and sitting about 11.31% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 202 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $70,050 the take-home is $55,736, which is worth about $54,977 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $73,270, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado's median for clinical laboratory technologists and technicians is $70,050, about 11.31% above the national figure and 12 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians ranks 202 of 491 occupations in Colorado by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for clinical laboratory technologists and technicians on its $70,050 median: $55,736 retained after tax becomes $54,977 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $73,270 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,050 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $70,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $102,900 |
| This salary | $70,050 |
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 | $55,736 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $58,110 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,823 |
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 | $66,676 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,275 |
| 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 $70,050. The published range is $47,050 up to $102,900, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $55,736 take-home in Colorado comes from $70,050. 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 202 of 491.
- Two cautions on $54,977, the adjusted value of that $70,050 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 202 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for clinical laboratory technologists and technicians in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $47,050 to $102,900. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $55,736, from $70,050, 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 202 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 51 for it.
- This $54,977 adjusted figure, worked from $70,050, 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 202 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 202 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 $73,270 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 $47,050, the highest tenth $102,900, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $54,977 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Colorado then takes its own share, leaving $55,736.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $73,270. 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 ($47,050) and the ninetieth ($102,900) 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 $54,977 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 $55,736 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.