Colorado · BLS May 2025

How much do logging equipment operators make in Colorado?

Logging equipment operators in Colorado earn a median of $49,620 a year ($23.86 an hour), about $3,381 a month after federal, state and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 70 of these jobs in Colorado in May 2025.

Median pay · Colorado

$49,620A year, or $24 an hour.
Take-home a month$3,381After federal, state and FICA tax at 18.2%
Worth at national prices$48,150Prices here sit at 103.1 against 100
Against the nation0.2% belowNational median $49,740
What logging equipment operators earn in Colorado, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$42,170$20
25th percentile$48,750$23
MedianHalf earn more, half less$49,620$24
75th percentile$57,510$28
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$87,930$42
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$56,440$27

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in ColoradoBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$49,620
  2. Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$23.86
  3. Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$3,381 a month at an effective rate of 18.2%.$40,575 a year
  4. Worth at national average pricesPrices in Colorado sit at 103.1 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$48,150
  5. Against the national medianThe national median is $49,740.0.2% below
  6. Jobs countedA concentration of 0.18 against the nation's 1.00.70
What we assumed
  • Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
  • OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
  • Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
  • Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details

Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1

What lands in the bank

Tax year 2026 · Interactive

Estimated on the median salary of $49,620 in Colorado, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$49,620
$40,000$90,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$49,620
Net 82%
Fed 8%
CO 3%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$40,575After all taxes
Monthly deposit$3,381Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$1,561Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate18.2%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$3,774 / yr
Colorado state income tax$1,475 / yr
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$3,796 / yr

Run the numbers on your own pay

Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.

What $49,620 is worth in Colorado

Prices in Colorado sit at 103.1 against a national average of 100, so $49,620 earned here buys what $48,150 buys at national average prices.

  • Rents. 127.4 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
  • Against local households. The median household in Colorado takes in $95,470, so this occupation's median is 0.52 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 82% less concentrated in Colorado than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for logging equipment operators in Colorado

Rents in Colorado index at 127.4 (U.S. = 100) while prices overall index at 103.1, a gap of +24.3 pts. For a renter, housing moves the local cost of living more than anything else.

The median for this job is 0.5 times the median household income in Colorado ($95,470). Many households have two earners, so one paycheck at this level falls short of what a typical local household brings in.

Only 70 of these jobs were counted in Colorado (a location quotient of 0.18). With a sample that small, the percentiles can move noticeably from one year's survey to the next.

Common questions

Logging Equipment Operators pay in Colorado, answered

How much do logging equipment operators make in Colorado?

The median wage for logging equipment operators in Colorado is $49,620 a year, or $23.86 an hour.

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.

What is the average Logging Equipment Operators salary in Colorado?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for logging equipment operators in Colorado is $56,440 a year. The median is $49,620.

The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.

What is the hourly pay for logging equipment operators in Colorado?

The median hourly wage is $23.86. At a full-time year that lines up with about $49,620 a year.

BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.

What is the starting salary for logging equipment operators in Colorado?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Colorado, the lowest-paid 10% of logging equipment operators earn under $42,170 a year and a quarter earn under $48,750 ($20.28 and $23.44 an hour).

New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.

What is the salary range for logging equipment operators in Colorado?

The overall salary range for logging equipment operators in Colorado spans from $42,170 for the bottom 10% to $87,930 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $48,750 and $57,510 a year, with the overall median at $49,620.

What is the take-home pay for logging equipment operators in Colorado?

On the median wage of $49,620, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $40,575 a year, or roughly $3,381 a month.

That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 18.2%.

Colorado takes $1,475 of it in state income tax.

How much does logging equipment operators make a month in Colorado?

On the median annual salary of $49,620, estimated take-home pay is roughly $3,381 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.

For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $1,561 net.

Do logging equipment operators earn more in Colorado than in the rest of the country?

No. The median in Colorado is 0.2% below the national median of $49,740.

Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Colorado sit at 103.1 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.

Is $49,620 a good salary in Colorado?

It is 0.52 times the median household income of $95,470. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.

Prices in Colorado run at 103.1 against a national average of 100, with rents at 127.4, so $49,620 here buys about what $48,150 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid logging equipment operators earn in Colorado?

The top tenth earn $87,930 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $42,170.

Experience, specialty, employer and the part of Colorado someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.

How many logging equipment operators are there in Colorado?

The survey counted 70 of these jobs in Colorado for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 82% less concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

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