Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,598
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$11,902
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,922
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
$61,500
Kept after tax
$49,598
Worth in national money
$48,922
State rank
10
of 51 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 $61,500, ranking 10 of 51 states and sitting about 4.88% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 260 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $61,500, tax leaves $49,598, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,922 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $63,650, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado's median for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers is $61,500, about 4.88% above the national figure and 10 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.
- Position 260 of 491 in Colorado places heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers — median $61,500 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,598 retained, $48,922 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $63,650 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,570 |
| This salary | $61,500 |
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 | $49,598 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,595 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,174 |
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 | $59,014 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,048 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,500 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,010 and the ninetieth is $80,570 — 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 $49,598, worked from $61,500. 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 260 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,922, the adjusted value of that $61,500 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 260 of 491 in the state.
- The Colorado median of $61,500 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,010 to $80,570. 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 $49,598, on $61,500 for work ranking 260 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 260 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $48,922 — the adjusted value of that $61,500 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 260 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 $63,650, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $47,010 at the tenth percentile, $80,570 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 $48,922 of national purchasing power.
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, $49,598 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $63,650. 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 ($47,010 to $80,570) 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 $48,922 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 $49,598 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.