Pharmacy Technicians in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,841
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$9,129
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,284
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
$49,970
Kept after tax
$40,841
Worth in national money
$40,284
State rank
5
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for pharmacy technicians is strong here. Colorado's middle earner gets $49,970, putting the state 5 of 51 — about 9.22% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 354 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Colorado costs about what the country costs, so from $49,970, take-home of $40,841 is worth roughly $40,284 in national money. The average comes to $52,210, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For pharmacy technicians, Colorado sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $49,970, ranking 5 of 51 and running about 9.22% 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.
- Pharmacy technicians ranks 354 of 491 occupations in Colorado by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Colorado is near the national base, so for pharmacy technicians, whose median is $49,970, the adjusted figure of $40,284 differs little from $40,841 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $52,210 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Pharmacy Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,760 |
| This salary | $49,970 |
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 | $40,841 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,331 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,278 |
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 | $48,115 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,964 |
| 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 pharmacy technicians in Colorado earn under $49,970 and half over. The published range runs $39,810 at the tenth percentile to $64,760 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $40,841 take-home in Colorado comes from $49,970. 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 354 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $40,284 uses one figure for the whole of Colorado. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 354.
- Figures are distribution medians for pharmacy technicians in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,810 to $64,760; 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 $40,841, from $49,970, 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 354 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 5 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $40,284, worked from $49,970, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Colorado address, on work sitting at 354 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 $52,210 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $39,810 and the top tenth $64,760, so most people doing this work in Colorado sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $40,284 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 $40,841 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 $52,210. 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 ($39,810 to $64,760) 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 $40,284 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 $40,841 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.