Sales Managers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$127,628
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$53,222
29.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$125,888
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
$180,850
Kept after tax
$127,628
Worth in national money
$125,888
State rank
4
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for sales managers. The middle earner takes $180,850, which ranks 4 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 21.97% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Colorado reports, sales managers comes in at 10 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $180,850 the take-home is $127,628, which is worth about $125,888 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $200,720, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Colorado ranks 4 of 50 states publishing a median for sales managers, at $180,850 — about 21.97% 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.
- Sales managers ranks 10 of 491 occupations by median in Colorado, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Colorado's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for sales managers on its $180,850 median: $127,628 retained after tax becomes $125,888 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $200,720 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Sales Managers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $105,270 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $180,850 |
| Top tenth earn over | $316,830 |
| This salary | $180,850 |
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 | $127,628 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $134,877 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$12,910 |
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 | $170,244 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$18,354 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $180,850 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $105,270 and the ninetieth is $316,830 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $127,628, from $180,850, 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 10 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $125,888, the adjusted value of that $180,850 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 10 of 491 locally.
- The Colorado median of $180,850 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $105,270 to $316,830. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Colorado is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $127,628 from $180,850. 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 10 of 491 locally.
- This $125,888 adjusted figure, worked from $180,850, 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 10 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 10 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 $200,720 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $105,270 at the bottom tenth to $316,830 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $125,888 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Colorado's own levy, $127,628 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $200,720. 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 ($105,270) and the ninetieth ($316,830) 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 $125,888 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 $127,628 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.