Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,388
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$11,203
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,742
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
$58,590
Kept after tax
$47,388
Worth in national money
$46,742
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $58,590, ranking 21 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 290 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 $58,590, tax leaves $47,388, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $46,742 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $60,410, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado occupies the middle band for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers: a median of $58,590, ranking 21 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.
- Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers ranks 290 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 welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers — median $58,590 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $47,388 retained, $46,742 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $60,410 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: Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,700 |
| This salary | $58,590 |
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 | $47,388 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,257 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,947 |
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 | $56,263 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,774 |
| 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 $58,590. The published range is $44,100 up to $79,700, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Colorado's $47,388, worked from $58,590. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 290 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $46,742 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 290.
- Reported values are medians; for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers in Colorado the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $44,100 to $79,700. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Colorado take-home of $47,388, on $58,590 for work ranking 290 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 290 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $46,742, worked from $58,590, 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 290 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 $60,410 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $44,100 at the bottom tenth to $79,700 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $46,742 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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, $47,388 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $60,410. 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 ($44,100 to $79,700) 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 $46,742 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 $47,388 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.