Compliance Officers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,914
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$18,536
22.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,043
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
$82,450
Kept after tax
$63,914
Worth in national money
$63,043
State rank
18
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for compliance officers. The median is $82,450, ranking 18 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 131 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $82,450, tax leaves $63,914, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,043 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $92,360, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for compliance officers: a median of $82,450, ranking 18 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Compliance officers ranks 131 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.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for compliance officers — median $82,450 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $63,914 retained, $63,043 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $92,360 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Compliance Officers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $57,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $82,450 |
| Top tenth earn over | $133,520 |
| This salary | $82,450 |
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 | $63,914 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,834 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,734 |
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 | $78,300 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,920 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of compliance officers in Colorado earn under $82,450 and half over. The published range runs $57,990 at the tenth percentile to $133,520 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $63,914, from $82,450, 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 131 of 491 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $63,043, the adjusted value of that $82,450 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 131 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for compliance officers in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $57,990 to $133,520; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Colorado is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $63,914 from $82,450. 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 131 of 491 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $63,043 — the adjusted value of that $82,450 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 131 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $92,360, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $57,990, the highest tenth $133,520, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Colorado run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $63,043 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 $63,914 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 $92,360. 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 ($57,990) and the ninetieth ($133,520) 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 $63,043 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 $63,914 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.