Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,071
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$11,419
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,416
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
$59,490
Kept after tax
$48,071
Worth in national money
$47,416
State rank
13
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Colorado's middle earner gets $59,490, putting the state 13 of 50 — about 7.05% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 279 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Colorado costs about what the country costs, so from $59,490, take-home of $48,071 is worth roughly $47,416 in national money. The average comes to $65,740, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For legal secretaries and administrative assistants, Colorado sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $59,490, ranking 13 of 50 and running about 7.05% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Legal secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 279 of 491 occupations in Colorado by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Colorado is near the national base, so for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, whose median is $59,490, the adjusted figure of $47,416 differs little from $48,071 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $65,740 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,060 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,490 |
| Top tenth earn over | $103,200 |
| This salary | $59,490 |
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 | $48,071 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,980 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,017 |
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 | $57,114 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,859 |
| 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 legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Colorado earn under $59,490 and half over. The published range runs $44,060 at the tenth percentile to $103,200 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $48,071, from $59,490, 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 279 of 491 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $47,416 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 279.
- Figures are distribution medians for legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $44,060 to $103,200; 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.
- Take-home for Colorado is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $48,071 from $59,490. 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 279 of 491 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $47,416, worked from $59,490, 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 279 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 $65,740 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $44,060, the highest tenth $103,200, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $47,416 — 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 $48,071 of this wage survives to your account.
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 $65,740. 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 ($44,060) and the ninetieth ($103,200) 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 $47,416 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 $48,071 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.