Crossing Guards and Flaggers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,461
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$6,159
16.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,032
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
$37,620
Kept after tax
$31,461
Worth in national money
$31,032
State rank
21
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for crossing guards and flaggers. The median is $37,620, ranking 21 of 49 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Colorado, this one sits low: 475 of 491 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $37,620, tax leaves $31,461, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $31,032 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $40,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for crossing guards and flaggers: a median of $37,620, ranking 21 of 49. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Crossing guards and flaggers occupies position 475 of 491 in Colorado's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for crossing guards and flaggers — median $37,620 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $31,461 retained, $31,032 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $40,330 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Crossing Guards and Flaggers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,620 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,640 |
| This salary | $37,620 |
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 | $31,461 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,408 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,318 |
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 | $36,442 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,803 |
| 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 crossing guards and flaggers in Colorado earn under $37,620 and half over. The published range runs $33,510 at the tenth percentile to $49,640 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $31,461 take-home in Colorado comes from $37,620. 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 475 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $31,032, the adjusted value of that $37,620 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 475 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for crossing guards and flaggers in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $33,510 to $49,640; 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.
- Retained pay of $31,461, from $37,620, 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 475 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $31,032 — the adjusted value of that $37,620 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 475 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $40,330, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $33,510 and the top tenth $49,640, so most people doing this work in Colorado sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $31,032 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, $31,461 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 $40,330. 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 ($33,510 to $49,640) 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 $31,032 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 $31,461 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.