Social Science Research Assistants in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,190
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$9,240
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,628
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
$50,430
Kept after tax
$41,190
Worth in national money
$40,628
State rank
35
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for social science research assistants is on the low side in Colorado. The middle earner gets $50,430. That is 35 of 45 states, and about 18.65% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 349 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $50,430, tax leaves $41,190, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $40,628 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $52,370, since top earners drag the number up.
- For social science research assistants, Colorado sits in the lower band at $50,430, ranking 35 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 18.65%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Social science research assistants ranks 349 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.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for social science research assistants — median $50,430 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $41,190 retained, $40,628 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $52,370 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Social Science Research Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,430 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,610 |
| This salary | $50,430 |
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 | $41,190 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,701 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,313 |
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 | $48,550 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,007 |
| 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 social science research assistants in Colorado earn under $50,430 and half over. The published range runs $42,590 at the tenth percentile to $63,610 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $41,190 take-home in Colorado comes from $50,430. 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 349 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $40,628, the adjusted value of that $50,430 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 349 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for social science research assistants in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $42,590 to $63,610; 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 $41,190, from $50,430, 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 349 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 45 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $40,628 — the adjusted value of that $50,430 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 349 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 $52,370 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $42,590 at the tenth percentile, $63,610 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 $40,628 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Colorado then takes its own share, leaving $41,190.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 $52,370. 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 ($42,590 to $63,610) 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 $40,628 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 $41,190 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.