Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$89,305
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$31,645
26.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$88,088
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
$120,950
Kept after tax
$89,305
Worth in national money
$88,088
State rank
9
of 45 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 $120,950, ranking 9 of 45 states and sitting about 5.03% above the national middle.
- Within Colorado this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 52 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $120,950 the take-home is $89,305, which is worth about $88,088 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $127,770, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado's median for health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors is $120,950, about 5.03% above the national figure and 9 of 45 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Ranked against every occupation Colorado publishes a median for, health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors sits 52 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors on its $120,950 median: $89,305 retained after tax becomes $88,088 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $127,770 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $84,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $120,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $178,200 |
| This salary | $120,950 |
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 | $89,305 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $93,918 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,561 |
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 | $114,392 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,826 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $120,950 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $84,400 and the ninetieth is $178,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $89,305, from $120,950, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 52 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $88,088, the adjusted value of that $120,950 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 52 of 491 locally.
- The Colorado median of $120,950 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $84,400 to $178,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Colorado is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $89,305 from $120,950. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 52 of 491 locally.
- This $88,088 adjusted figure, worked from $120,950, 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 52 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 52 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 $127,770 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $84,400 and the top tenth $178,200 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $88,088 — 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 $89,305 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 $127,770. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($84,400) and the ninetieth ($178,200) 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 $88,088 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 $89,305 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.