Veterinarians in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$95,647
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$35,193
26.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$94,343
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
$130,840
Kept after tax
$95,647
Worth in national money
$94,343
State rank
15
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Colorado pays veterinarians a middle wage of $130,840, ranking 15 of 49 states and sitting about 0.57% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Colorado reports, veterinarians comes in at 38 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $130,840, tax leaves $95,647, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $94,343 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $137,190, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado's median for veterinarians is $130,840, about 0.57% above the national figure and 15 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Veterinarians ranks 38 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.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for veterinarians — median $130,840 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $95,647 retained, $94,343 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $137,190 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Veterinarians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $77,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $130,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $211,930 |
| This salary | $130,840 |
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 | $95,647 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $100,695 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,280 |
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 | $123,454 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,075 |
| 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 veterinarians in Colorado earn under $130,840 and half over. The published range runs $77,710 at the tenth percentile to $211,930 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Colorado the take-home figure of $95,647, from $130,840, 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 38 of 491 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $94,343, the adjusted value of that $130,840 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 38 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for veterinarians in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $77,710 to $211,930; 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 $95,647 from $130,840. 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 38 of 491 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $94,343 — the adjusted value of that $130,840 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 38 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 $137,190, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $77,710 at the bottom tenth to $211,930 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $94,343 of national purchasing power.
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, $95,647 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 49 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 $137,190. 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 ($77,710) and the ninetieth ($211,930) 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 $94,343 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 $95,647 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.