Labor Relations Specialists in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$67,014
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$20,136
23.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,100
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
$87,150
Kept after tax
$67,014
Worth in national money
$66,100
State rank
22
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Colorado pays labor relations specialists around $87,150 at the midpoint, 22 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Colorado. It ranks 119 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $87,150, tax leaves $67,014, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $66,100 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $96,780, since top earners drag the number up.
- For labor relations specialists the Colorado median is $87,150, ranking 22 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Colorado, labor relations specialists ranks 119 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 labor relations specialists — median $87,150 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $67,014 retained, $66,100 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $96,780 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Labor Relations Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $62,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $87,150 |
| Top tenth earn over | $134,520 |
| This salary | $87,150 |
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 | $67,014 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $70,140 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,079 |
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 | $82,706 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,397 |
| 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 $87,150. The published range is $62,240 up to $134,520, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $67,014 take-home in Colorado comes from $87,150. 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 119 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $66,100 uses one figure for the whole of Colorado. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 119.
- Reported values are medians; for labor relations specialists in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $62,240 to $134,520. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $67,014, from $87,150, 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 119 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 22 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $66,100, worked from $87,150, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Colorado address, on work sitting at 119 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $96,780, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $62,240, the highest tenth $134,520, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $66,100 rather than its face figure.
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 $67,014 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.
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 $96,780. 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 ($62,240) and the ninetieth ($134,520) 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 $66,100 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 $67,014 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.