Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,714
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$9,406
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,145
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
$51,120
Kept after tax
$41,714
Worth in national money
$41,145
State rank
25
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $51,120, ranking 25 of 47 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 339 among 491 occupations Colorado publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $51,120, tax leaves $41,714, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $41,145 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $53,160, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for structural metal fabricators and fitters: a median of $51,120, ranking 25 of 47. 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 339 of 491 in Colorado places structural metal fabricators and fitters 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.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for structural metal fabricators and fitters — median $51,120 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $41,714 retained, $41,145 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $53,160 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,930 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,770 |
| This salary | $51,120 |
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 | $41,714 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,255 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,367 |
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 | $49,202 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,072 |
| 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 structural metal fabricators and fitters in Colorado earn under $51,120 and half over. The published range runs $45,930 at the tenth percentile to $63,770 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $41,714, from $51,120, 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 339 of 491 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $41,145 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 339.
- Figures are distribution medians for structural metal fabricators and fitters in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $45,930 to $63,770; 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.
- Take-home for Colorado is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $41,714 from $51,120. 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 339 of 491 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $41,145, worked from $51,120, 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 339 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 $53,160 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 $45,930 and the top tenth $63,770, so most people doing this work in Colorado sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $41,145 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, $41,714 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 47 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $53,160. 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 ($45,930 to $63,770) 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 $41,145 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 $41,714 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.