Engineers, All Other in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$96,766
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$35,824
27.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$95,447
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
$132,590
Kept after tax
$96,766
Worth in national money
$95,447
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Colorado pays engineers, all other a middle wage of $132,590, ranking 7 of 51 states and sitting about 7.86% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Colorado reports, engineers, all other comes in at 36 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $132,590, tax leaves $96,766, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $95,447 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $134,930, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado's median for engineers, all other is $132,590, about 7.86% above the national figure and 7 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Engineers, all other ranks 36 of 491 occupations by median in Colorado, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for engineers, all other — median $132,590 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $96,766 retained, $95,447 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $134,930 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Engineers, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $75,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $132,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $195,190 |
| This salary | $132,590 |
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 | $96,766 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $101,891 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,407 |
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 | $125,091 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,300 |
| 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 $132,590. The published range is $75,900 up to $195,190, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $96,766 take-home in Colorado comes from $132,590. 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 36 of 491.
- Two cautions on $95,447, the adjusted value of that $132,590 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 36 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for engineers, all other in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $75,900 to $195,190. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $96,766, from $132,590, 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 36 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 7 of 51 for it.
- This $95,447 adjusted figure, worked from $132,590, 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 36 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 36 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $75,900, the highest tenth $195,190, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $95,447 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 $96,766 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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($75,900) and the ninetieth ($195,190) 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 $95,447 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 $96,766 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.