Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,879
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$6,291
16.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,444
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
$38,170
Kept after tax
$31,879
Worth in national money
$31,444
State rank
12
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Colorado pays this job a middle wage of $38,170, ranking 12 of 50 states and sitting about 7.04% above the national middle.
- Against 491 occupations Colorado publishes, this job lands at 468. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $38,170, tax leaves $31,879, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $31,444 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $40,890, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado's median for farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse is $38,170, about 7.04% above the national figure and 12 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Colorado, this work ranks 468 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse — median $38,170 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $31,879 retained, $31,444 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $40,890 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,210 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,360 |
| This salary | $38,170 |
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 | $31,879 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,850 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,361 |
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 | $36,961 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,855 |
| 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 farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse in Colorado earn under $38,170 and half over. The published range runs $33,210 at the tenth percentile to $53,360 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $31,879 take-home in Colorado comes from $38,170. 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 468 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $31,444, the adjusted value of that $38,170 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 468 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $33,210 to $53,360; 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 $31,879, from $38,170, 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 468 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $31,444 — the adjusted value of that $38,170 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 468 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 $40,890 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $33,210 at the bottom tenth to $53,360 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $31,444 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, $31,879 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $40,890. 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 ($33,210 to $53,360) 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 $31,444 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 $31,879 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.