Self-Enrichment Teachers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,846
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$7,864
17.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,343
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
$44,710
Kept after tax
$36,846
Worth in national money
$36,343
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for self-enrichment teachers. The median is $44,710, ranking 25 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Colorado, this one sits low: 430 of 491 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $44,710, tax leaves $36,846, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $36,343 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $49,430, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for self-enrichment teachers: a median of $44,710, ranking 25 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.
- Self-enrichment teachers occupies position 430 of 491 in Colorado's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for self-enrichment teachers — median $44,710 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $36,846 retained, $36,343 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $49,430 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Self-Enrichment Teachers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,050 |
| This salary | $44,710 |
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 | $36,846 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,104 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,869 |
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 | $43,143 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,470 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Colorado earn less than $44,710. The published range is $34,190 up to $75,050, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $36,846 take-home in Colorado comes from $44,710. 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 430 of 491.
- Two cautions on $36,343, the adjusted value of that $44,710 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 430 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for self-enrichment teachers in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,190 to $75,050. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $36,846, from $44,710, 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 430 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- This $36,343 adjusted figure, worked from $44,710, 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 430 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 430 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $49,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $34,190 and the top tenth $75,050 — 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 $36,343 — 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 $36,846 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 $49,430. 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 ($34,190) and the ninetieth ($75,050) 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 $36,343 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 $36,846 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.