Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,919
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$12,321
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,225
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
$63,240
Kept after tax
$50,919
Worth in national money
$50,225
State rank
30
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $63,240, ranking 30 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 245 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $63,240 the take-home is $50,919, which is worth about $50,225 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $69,090, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters: a median of $63,240, ranking 30 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 245 of 491 in Colorado places plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters 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.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters on its $63,240 median: $50,919 retained after tax becomes $50,225 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $69,090 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,240 |
| This salary | $63,240 |
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 | $50,919 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,993 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,309 |
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 | $60,659 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,211 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,240 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,770 and the ninetieth is $100,240 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Colorado's $50,919, worked from $63,240. 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 245 of 491.
- Two cautions on $50,225, the adjusted value of that $63,240 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 245 of 491 locally.
- The Colorado median of $63,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,770 to $100,240. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Colorado take-home of $50,919, on $63,240 for work ranking 245 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 245 of 491 in the state.
- This $50,225 adjusted figure, worked from $63,240, 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 245 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 245 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 $69,090, 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 $47,770 and the top tenth $100,240 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $50,225 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 $50,919 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 $69,090. 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 ($47,770) and the ninetieth ($100,240) 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 $50,225 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 $50,919 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.