Occupational Health and Safety Specialists in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,412
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$24,988
24.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$75,370
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
$101,400
Kept after tax
$76,412
Worth in national money
$75,370
State rank
6
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $101,400, which ranks 6 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 12.48% above the national middle.
- Within Colorado this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 90 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $101,400, tax leaves $76,412, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $75,370 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $105,830, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado ranks 6 of 51 states publishing a median for occupational health and safety specialists, at $101,400 — about 12.48% 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.
- Ranked against every occupation Colorado publishes a median for, occupational health and safety specialists sits 90 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for occupational health and safety specialists — median $101,400 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $76,412 retained, $75,370 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $105,830 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $64,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $101,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $153,030 |
| This salary | $101,400 |
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 | $76,412 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $80,165 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,125 |
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 | $96,065 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,842 |
| 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 occupational health and safety specialists in Colorado earn under $101,400 and half over. The published range runs $64,140 at the tenth percentile to $153,030 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $76,412 take-home in Colorado comes from $101,400. 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 90 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $75,370, the adjusted value of that $101,400 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 90 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for occupational health and safety specialists in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $64,140 to $153,030; 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.
- Retained pay of $76,412, from $101,400, 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 90 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 6 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $75,370 — the adjusted value of that $101,400 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 90 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 $105,830, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $64,140 and the top tenth $153,030 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $75,370 — 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 $76,412 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 $105,830. 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 ($64,140) and the ninetieth ($153,030) 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 $75,370 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 $76,412 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.