Opticians, Dispensing in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,820
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$8,490
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,291
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
$47,310
Kept after tax
$38,820
Worth in national money
$38,291
State rank
24
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Colorado is 24 of 51 states for opticians, dispensing, with a middle wage of $47,310. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Colorado this is lower-paid work. Of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, opticians, dispensing ranks 390. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- No great distortion either way. Colorado costs about what the country costs, so from $47,310, take-home of $38,820 is worth roughly $38,291 in national money. The average comes to $51,210, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Colorado ranks 24 of 51 for opticians, dispensing at $47,310. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Colorado reports, opticians, dispensing ranks 390 of 491, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Price parity in Colorado is near the national base, so for opticians, dispensing, whose median is $47,310, the adjusted figure of $38,291 differs little from $38,820 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $51,210 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Opticians, Dispensing
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,310 |
| Top tenth earn over | $66,160 |
| This salary | $47,310 |
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 | $38,820 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,194 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,071 |
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 | $45,601 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,714 |
| 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 opticians, dispensing in Colorado earn under $47,310 and half over. The published range runs $38,900 at the tenth percentile to $66,160 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $38,820, from $47,310, 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 390 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $38,291, the adjusted value of that $47,310 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 390 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for opticians, dispensing in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,900 to $66,160; 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 $38,820 from $47,310. 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 390 of 491 locally.
- This $38,291 adjusted figure, worked from $47,310, 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 390 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 390 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 $51,210, 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?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $38,900 at the tenth percentile, $66,160 at the ninetieth.
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 $38,291 rather than its face figure.
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 $38,820 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 $51,210. 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 ($38,900 to $66,160) 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 $38,291 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 $38,820 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.