Massage Therapists in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,263
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$11,797
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,592
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
$61,060
Kept after tax
$49,263
Worth in national money
$48,592
State rank
21
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for massage therapists. The median is $61,060, ranking 21 of 50 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Massage therapists ranks 263 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $61,060 the take-home is $49,263, which is worth about $48,592 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $68,380, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for massage therapists: a median of $61,060, ranking 21 of 50. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 263 of 491 in Colorado places massage therapists 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.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for massage therapists on its $61,060 median: $49,263 retained after tax becomes $48,592 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $68,380 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,060 |
| Top tenth earn over | $101,710 |
| This salary | $61,060 |
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 | $49,263 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,242 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,139 |
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 | $58,598 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,006 |
| 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 massage therapists in Colorado earn under $61,060 and half over. The published range runs $35,990 at the tenth percentile to $101,710 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Colorado's $49,263, worked from $61,060. 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 263 of 491.
- Two cautions on $48,592, the adjusted value of that $61,060 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 263 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for massage therapists in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,990 to $101,710; 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.
- The Colorado take-home of $49,263, on $61,060 for work ranking 263 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 263 of 491 in the state.
- This $48,592 adjusted figure, worked from $61,060, 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 263 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 263 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 $68,380 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 $35,990 and the top tenth $101,710 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $48,592 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Colorado then takes its own share, leaving $49,263.
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 $68,380. 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 ($35,990) and the ninetieth ($101,710) 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 $48,592 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 $49,263 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.