News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,043
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$11,727
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,375
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
$60,770
Kept after tax
$49,043
Worth in national money
$48,375
State rank
12
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $60,770, which ranks 12 of 48 states with published figures. That is about 2.3% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 268 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $60,770, tax leaves $49,043, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,375 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $68,760, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado ranks 12 of 48 states publishing a median for news analysts, reporters, and journalists, at $60,770 — about 2.3% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Position 268 of 491 in Colorado places news analysts, reporters, and journalists 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 news analysts, reporters, and journalists — median $60,770 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,043 retained, $48,375 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $68,760 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,850 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,700 |
| This salary | $60,770 |
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 | $49,043 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,009 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,117 |
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 | $58,324 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,979 |
| 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 news analysts, reporters, and journalists in Colorado earn under $60,770 and half over. The published range runs $36,850 at the tenth percentile to $99,700 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 $49,043, worked from $60,770. 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 268 of 491.
- Two cautions on $48,375, the adjusted value of that $60,770 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 268 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for news analysts, reporters, and journalists in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,850 to $99,700; 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 $49,043, on $60,770 for work ranking 268 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 268 of 491 in the state.
- This $48,375 adjusted figure, worked from $60,770, 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 268 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 268 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 $68,760 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 $36,850 and the top tenth $99,700 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $48,375 of national purchasing power.
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 $49,043 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 48 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 $68,760. 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 ($36,850) and the ninetieth ($99,700) 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 $48,375 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 $49,043 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.