Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,722
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$7,508
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,235
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
$43,230
Kept after tax
$35,722
Worth in national money
$35,235
State rank
12
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Colorado's middle earner gets $43,230, putting the state 12 of 51 — about 9.75% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 491 occupations Colorado publishes, this job lands at 440. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $43,230, tax leaves $35,722, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $35,235 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $45,190, since top earners drag the number up.
- For merchandise displayers and window trimmers, Colorado sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $43,230, ranking 12 of 51 and running about 9.75% 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.
- Within Colorado, this work ranks 440 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for merchandise displayers and window trimmers — median $43,230 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $35,722 retained, $35,235 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $45,190 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,880 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,230 |
| Top tenth earn over | $56,080 |
| This salary | $43,230 |
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 | $35,722 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,915 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,754 |
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 | $41,744 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,330 |
| 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 merchandise displayers and window trimmers in Colorado earn under $43,230 and half over. The published range runs $35,880 at the tenth percentile to $56,080 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 $35,722, worked from $43,230. 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 440 of 491.
- Two cautions on $35,235, the adjusted value of that $43,230 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 440 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for merchandise displayers and window trimmers in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,880 to $56,080; 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 $35,722, on $43,230 for work ranking 440 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 440 of 491 in the state.
- This $35,235 adjusted figure, worked from $43,230, 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 440 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 440 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 $45,190, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $35,880 at the bottom tenth to $56,080 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $35,235 — 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 $35,722 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 $45,190. 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 ($35,880 to $56,080) 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 $35,235 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 $35,722 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.