Compensation and Benefits Managers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$117,984
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$47,786
28.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$116,376
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
$165,770
Kept after tax
$117,984
Worth in national money
$116,376
State rank
8
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Colorado's middle earner gets $165,770, putting the state 8 of 45 — about 11.08% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Colorado this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 16 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $165,770, tax leaves $117,984, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $116,376 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $163,370.
- For compensation and benefits managers, Colorado sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $165,770, ranking 8 of 45 and running about 11.08% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Ranked against every occupation Colorado publishes a median for, compensation and benefits managers sits 16 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for compensation and benefits managers — median $165,770 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $117,984 retained, $116,376 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $163,370 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Compensation and Benefits Managers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $92,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $165,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $227,230 |
| This salary | $165,770 |
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 | $117,984 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $124,570 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$11,815 |
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 | $156,135 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$16,798 |
| 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 $165,770. The published range is $92,990 up to $227,230, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $117,984, from $165,770, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 16 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $116,376, the adjusted value of that $165,770 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 16 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for compensation and benefits managers in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $92,990 to $227,230. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Colorado is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $117,984 from $165,770. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 16 of 491 locally.
- This $116,376 adjusted figure, worked from $165,770, 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 16 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 16 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $92,990 and the top tenth $227,230 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $116,376 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, $117,984 remains.
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 45 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 ($92,990) and the ninetieth ($227,230) 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 $116,376 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 $117,984 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.