Dental Hygienists in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$81,806
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$27,774
25.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$80,691
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
$109,580
Kept after tax
$81,806
Worth in national money
$80,691
State rank
7
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for dental hygienists is strong here. Colorado's middle earner gets $109,580, putting the state 7 of 50 — about 11.7% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Colorado. It ranks 67 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $109,580, tax leaves $81,806, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $80,691 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $110,030, since top earners drag the number up.
- For dental hygienists, Colorado sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $109,580, ranking 7 of 50 and running about 11.7% 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.
- Within Colorado, dental hygienists ranks 67 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for dental hygienists — median $109,580 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $81,806 retained, $80,691 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $110,030 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Dental Hygienists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $95,680 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $109,580 |
| Top tenth earn over | $128,900 |
| This salary | $109,580 |
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 | $81,806 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $85,920 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,726 |
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 | $103,733 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,672 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $109,580 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $95,680 and the ninetieth is $128,900 — 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 $81,806, worked from $109,580. 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 67 of 491.
- Two cautions on $80,691, the adjusted value of that $109,580 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 67 of 491 locally.
- The Colorado median of $109,580 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $95,680 to $128,900. 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 $81,806, on $109,580 for work ranking 67 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 67 of 491 in the state.
- This $80,691 adjusted figure, worked from $109,580, 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 67 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 67 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $95,680 at the tenth percentile, $128,900 at the ninetieth.
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 $80,691 of national purchasing power.
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 $81,806 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($95,680 to $128,900) 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 $80,691 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 $81,806 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.