Credit Counselors in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,279
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$10,851
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,648
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
$57,130
Kept after tax
$46,279
Worth in national money
$45,648
State rank
15
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Colorado pays credit counselors a middle wage of $57,130, ranking 15 of 46 states and sitting about 9.38% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Credit counselors ranks 299 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- No great distortion either way. Colorado costs about what the country costs, so from $57,130, take-home of $46,279 is worth roughly $45,648 in national money. The average comes to $58,940, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Colorado's median for credit counselors is $57,130, about 9.38% above the national figure and 15 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 299 of 491 in Colorado places credit counselors in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Price parity in Colorado is near the national base, so for credit counselors, whose median is $57,130, the adjusted figure of $45,648 differs little from $46,279 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $58,940 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Credit Counselors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,460 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,320 |
| This salary | $57,130 |
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 | $46,279 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,084 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,834 |
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 | $54,883 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,637 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $57,130 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,460 and the ninetieth is $80,320 — 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 $46,279, worked from $57,130. 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 299 of 491.
- Two cautions on $45,648, the adjusted value of that $57,130 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 299 of 491 locally.
- The Colorado median of $57,130 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,460 to $80,320. 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 $46,279, on $57,130 for work ranking 299 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 299 of 491 in the state.
- This $45,648 adjusted figure, worked from $57,130, 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 299 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 299 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 $58,940 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 $45,460 and the top tenth $80,320, so most people doing this work in Colorado sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $45,648 — 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 $46,279 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 $58,940. 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 ($45,460 to $80,320) 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 $45,648 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 $46,279 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.