Denver Paycheck Calculator 2026

What comes out of a Denver paycheck

A Denver paycheck loses federal income tax withholding, FICA and Colorado state income tax, and then something Denver itself charges: The Occupational Privilege Tax: a flat $5.75 a month withheld from any employee earning at least $500 in the month, plus $4 paid by the employer. That last item is published by the city (City and County of Denver — Occupational Privilege Tax, checked 2026-09-15) and is not yet applied by the calculator, so the figure above is the Colorado figure and the page says what to add. On $85,000 paid every two weeks the Colorado figure is $2,522.92 of $3,269.23 gross.

Everything else that reduces the deposit is a deduction: 401(k), health premiums, HSA or FSA, and after-tax items. A traditional 401(k) contribution lowers federal and Colorado taxable wages; a Section 125 health or HSA contribution lowers FICA as well. The advanced panel takes each separately.

The Denver charge: what the city publishes

The Occupational Privilege Tax: a flat $5.75 a month withheld from any employee earning at least $500 in the month, plus $4 paid by the employer. Published by City and County of Denver — Occupational Privilege Tax and read on 2026-09-15.

This is a flat fee rather than a percentage, so it is the same whether you earn $30,000 or $300,000: $5.75 a month, $69 a year, and it does not reduce your federal or state taxable income. Subtract it from the Colorado figure above to get your Denver deposit; it is not yet a line in the calculator because a flat fee does not fit the percentage engine, and we would rather say so than model it wrong.

Commuting and remote work in Denver

With no city tax, commuting into Denver changes nothing on the paycheck: a resident of a neighbouring suburb and a resident of Denver on the same salary have the same stub. What can change it is the state line for people who cross a state border — Denver's metro area sits inside Colorado, so this is rare here. Remote workers living in Denver for an employer elsewhere generally pay Colorado tax on wages earned at home, unless the employer is in a convenience-of-the-employer state such as New York.

Tax paid to another state by a Denver commuter is credited on the Colorado return. The W-4 fixer handles the federal withholding; local and state forms are on the Colorado page.

Hourly work in Denver: minimum wage and overtime

Hourly workers in Denver use the same rules with a gross of rate × hours. Colorado has a daily overtime rule on top of the federal weekly one. Denver's minimum wage — where the city sets one above the state's — is being verified against the city ordinance and will be listed with its source; until then, enter your actual rate on the Colorado hourly page.

From 2026, the premium half of overtime pay and up to $25,000 of reported tips are deductible on the federal return without changing the withholding, which matters most for hourly and tipped work.

Cost of living in Denver: what the paycheck buys

The metro area (Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO) has 2,977,085 people and a housing price level of 146.9 against a national 100. The Bureau of Economic Analysis price index for the metro area is 105.8 overall (100 = national average), with goods at 101.0, housing at 146.9 and utilities at 87.9. Housing is the component that decides whether a salary works in Denver: at 147 it is 47% above the national level.

Deflating the $85,000 biweekly take-home of $2,522.92 by that price level gives $2,385.02 in national-average dollars — against $2,110.78 in New York City, $2,397.08 in Chicago, $2,676.21 in Houston. The paycheck ranking and the purchasing-power ranking are different lists, and for a city the second one is the one that matters.

For owners, the metro's effective property tax rate is 0.51% of home value, weighted across its 10 counties — the other large tax a Denver household pays, and one that does not appear on any paycheck. Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area, 2024 (released 19 February 2026) (2024 data, checked 2026-09-08); property tax from the American Community Survey via our sister site.

Example Denver paychecks in 2026

Computed by the calculator's engine for a single filer with a clean W-4, paid every two weeks, no deductions:

$40,000 a year → $1,279.55 take-home per paycheck — 16.8% of gross to all taxes.

$60,000 a year → $1,863.78 take-home per paycheck — 19.2% of gross to all taxes.

$85,000 a year → $2,522.92 take-home per paycheck — 22.8% of gross to all taxes.

$120,000 a year → $3,410.71 take-home per paycheck — 26.1% of gross to all taxes.

$200,000 a year → $5,379.78 take-home per paycheck — 29.6% of gross to all taxes.

The share going to taxes rises with salary because federal and Colorado brackets are progressive. Every amount has its own page under salary after tax with the 51-state table.

Denver vs New York City, Chicago, Houston

On $85,000 every two weeks, a single filer keeps $2,522.92 in Denver; $2,375.96 in New York City, $2,483.26 in Chicago, $2,639.52 in Houston. Houston leave more on the paycheck. Combined with the price index above, the order can flip: a bigger paycheck in a dearer city buys less.

Denver is the only Colorado city with its own page; the Colorado page covers the rest of the state.

The math behind a Denver paycheck

Take $85,000 paid every two weeks: $3,269.23 gross. Federal. The percentage method annualises it to $85,000, subtracts the $8,600 step-1 adjustment for a single filer to get $76,400, finds the row of the standard withholding table starting at $57,900 (base $5,800 plus 22% of the excess) and arrives at $9,870 for the year, $379.62 per paycheck. FICA. 6.2% of $3,269.23 is $202.69 and 1.45% is $47.40.

Colorado. On the annualised $85,000, the state deduction of $16,100 leaves $68,900 taxable; at 4.40% that is $3,032 a year, $116.60 per paycheck.

Together: $3,269.23 − $379.62 − $250.09 − $116.60 = $2,522.92, before the Denver charge described above. Every intermediate figure is in the «Show me the math» diagram under the calculator for whatever you enter.

A year of Denver paychecks: the ones that change

Two things make a paycheck differ from the one before it. The Social Security wage base — $184,500 in 2026 — stops the 6.2% once your wages pass it: on $200,000 in Denver, paid every two weeks, that is around paycheck 24 of 26, and the take-home goes from $5,379.78 to about $5,856.70. Enter your year-to-date gross in the advanced panel and the change lands on the right paycheck.

The calendar does the rest: 26 biweekly paychecks means two months a year with three paydays, and 24 semi-monthly ones means every month has two. The biweekly paycheck is about 7.7% smaller on the same salary. And because withholding annualises each paycheck on its own, a bonus month or an overtime-heavy fortnight is withheld as if it repeated all year; the excess comes back at filing, and the «withholding vs what you owe» box under the calculator shows how far the year is drifting.

Filing status and dependents in Denver

On $65,000 every two weeks in Denver, a single filer keeps $2,009.85 and a married person filing jointly $2,120.93, assuming the salary is the household's only income — the case the W-4's step 2 exists to correct when it is not. Two children entered on step 3 ($4,400 a year, the 2026 child tax credit for two) lift the single filer's paycheck to $2,179.08, $169.23 more each time.

Do not put the same child on two W-4s: each employer subtracts the full credit and the household under-withholds by that amount. The W-4 fixer splits the credit and gives each spouse the exact lines.

What a raise really leaves in Denver

A $5,000 raise from $65,000 to $70,000 adds $192.31 of gross to a biweekly paycheck in Denver and $132.59 of take-home: 68.9% survives. The rest is the marginal rate — federal 22%, FICA 7.65%, Colorado 4.40% — on the new dollars only. A raise never lowers your take-home; the «higher bracket» worry is arithmetic that does not exist in a progressive system. The pay raise calculator does this for any two figures and says whether the raise beats inflation.

An hourly paycheck in Denver, worked through

$20 an hour, 40 hours a week, every two weeks: $1,600.00 gross; federal $108.15, FICA $122.40, Colorado $43.15; take-home $1,326.30, 82.9% of gross. Add five overtime hours at time-and-a-half and the paycheck becomes $1,750.00 gross, $1,440.22 net: 75.9% of the extra survives.

The premium half of that overtime — $50.00 per paycheck — is deductible federally from 2026, which the withholding ignores and the Colorado hourly calculator counts toward the refund: $1,300 on these numbers.

Reading a Denver pay stub

Gross at the top; FIT or Fed W/H for federal income tax; OASDI or SS for Social Security; MED or HI for Medicare; SIT or CO W/H for Colorado; and, if your employer withholds it, a line for the Denver charge. YTD columns carry the running totals the wage-base rules use.

Pre-tax deductions sit above the taxes and reduce the taxable figures; after-tax ones sit below. If the federal taxable wages differ from gross by more than your pre-tax deductions, a benefit is being treated as imputed income. The pay stub preview above lays out the calculator's figures the same way, and the what is a pay stub guide decodes every abbreviation.

A worked example: $80,000 in Colorado, paid every two weeks

Take $80,000 a year in Colorado, paid every two weeks (26 paychecks), single, standard W-4, no pre-tax deductions. The gross per paycheck is $3,076.92. Federal income tax withholding, from the 2026 Publication 15-T percentage method, takes $337.31. Social Security takes 6.2% of gross, $190.77, and Medicare 1.45%, $44.62. Colorado withholds $108.14 under its flat rate and deductions. The net deposit is $2,396.08, 77.9% of gross; over the year that is $62,298 from $80,000, an effective rate of 22.1% on all taxes together. Every line is reproducible from the documents on the sources page, and the table below lists them in the order they appear on a stub.

Two things on that stub are not obvious from the totals. First, the federal line is withholding, not tax: the tables annualise this paycheck as if all 26 were identical, and the year's actual tax, $8,770, differs from the $8,770 withheld by $0, which becomes a refund in April. Second, Social Security and Medicare are the same fraction of every paycheck of the year, because the salary is under the wage base, and no form can change them; only Section 125 deductions reduce their base. The reading guide walks each line and names what it should equal.

Nearby salaries: what $60,000 to $115,000 leave in Colorado

A raise or a job offer is rarely at the round number on this page, so here is the ladder around it: the same every two weeks paycheck at 6 salaries from $60,000 to $115,000, single, standard W-4, no deductions. The effective rate climbs from 19.2% to 25.8% across the range because federal income tax is progressive while FICA is flat; each extra $10,000 of salary leaves less than the last, and the pay raise calculator prices any step exactly. The salary after tax pages carry the full range, one page per amount.

Reading the ladder the other way answers the interview question: to take home $10,000 more a year in Colorado takes a raise of roughly $13,469 in gross at this level, because the new dollars are taxed at the marginal rate rather than the average. The state column grows in a straight line, since Colorado charges one rate; the FICA column grows in a straight line until the wage base. The gross-up calculator runs the reverse computation for any net.

The same paycheck under each filing status

Filing status is the one W-4 line everyone fills in, and it moves the federal line more than most people expect. On $80,000 in Colorado, paid every two weeks, a single filer is withheld $337.31 per paycheck; married filing jointly (one income) $201.54, because the joint table doubles the standard deduction to $32,200 and widens every bracket; head of household $244.15, with its $24,150 deduction and its own brackets. Married filing separately uses the single table. Colorado's own deductions and brackets are the same for joint filers, which is why the state column moves too. Picking «married» with two incomes and skipping step 2 is the commonest cause of an April bill; the W-4 guide covers the choice.

The last column shows why the status matters beyond the paycheck: the year's federal income tax on $80,000 is $8,770 single and $5,240 married filing jointly on one income, a difference of $3,530 that the W-4 status either delivers through the year or holds back for a refund. Head of household is the status most often missed by single parents, who leave $2,422 a year on the single table. FICA is identical in every row, since it has no status.

Common mistakes on Denver paychecks

Not budgeting for the city charge. The Occupational Privilege Tax: a flat $5. It is small, but it is on every paycheck. Reading the bonus withholding as the tax. The flat 22% federal rate on a bonus is withholding; the tax is your marginal rate.

Budgeting from the wrong paycheck. Biweekly and semi-monthly differ by about 7.7% on the same salary. Ignoring the Social Security cap. Above $184,500 the later paychecks are larger. Leaving the state form blank. Without Form DR 0004 your employer applies the Colorado default and usually over-withholds.

The three taxes on a Denver paycheck, and why they behave differently

Federal income tax is progressive and starts from zero: the first $16,100 a single filer earns in 2026 is untaxed because that is the standard deduction, and the rate climbs through seven brackets. It is the only line that responds to your W-4. FICA is flat from the first dollar — 6.2% for Social Security up to $184,500 and 1.45% for Medicare without limit — and no form changes it. Colorado income tax is a single rate of 4.40%, applied on an annualised basis.

Keeping them apart is the point of the line-by-line result: a 401(k) contribution moves the federal and Colorado lines but not FICA; a raise moves all of them but at different rates; the Social Security cap moves only one. A single «taxes» figure hides which lever does what.

401(k), HSA and health premiums on a Denver paycheck

A $250 contribution to a traditional 401(k) on the $85,000 example lowers the Denver take-home from $2,522.92 to $2,338.92: $184.00 of paycheck for $250 of savings, because the contribution comes out before federal and Colorado income tax but not before FICA. The same $250 into a health plan or HSA through a Section 125 arrangement costs $164.88 of take-home, less again, because it escapes FICA too.

The 2026 limits are $24,500 for 401(k) elective deferrals ($8,000 more from age 50) and $4,400 / $8,750 for HSA self-only and family coverage. The 401(k) chart under the calculator draws the cost curve for your own figures, one percent at a time.

Moving to Denver: what changes on the paycheck

For someone arriving on $85,000: from New York City the biweekly paycheck goes from $2,375.96 to $2,522.92 ($146.96 more); from Los Angeles the biweekly paycheck goes from $2,498.75 to $2,522.92 ($24.17 more); from Chicago the biweekly paycheck goes from $2,483.26 to $2,522.92 ($39.66 more); from Houston the biweekly paycheck goes from $2,639.52 to $2,522.92 ($116.60 less). Counting prices, the Denver paycheck is worth $2,385.02 in national-average dollars, against $2,110.78 in New York City, $2,200.26 in Los Angeles, $2,397.08 in Chicago, $2,676.21 in Houston.

The paycheck is the visible part of a move and rarely the largest: housing in Denver is at 147 on the BEA index against 100 nationally, and that difference on a rent or a mortgage usually outweighs the tax line. The state hub compares all 51 states for any salary; our sister site's [city comparisons](https://estimatetax.net/compare/cities/) add property tax and housing for a full relocation picture.

How Colorado's rate has changed, and what it means for Denver

We have not yet loaded a rate history for Colorado. Twenty-six states have cut income tax rates since 2021 and seven have moved from brackets to a single rate, so the direction of travel nationally is downward.

Federal changes apply in Denver as everywhere: the standard deduction, brackets and Social Security wage base move each year with inflation, and the what changed in 2026 guide keeps the list.

The salary ladder in Denver

Seven salaries, single filer, every two weeks, in Denver: $30,000 → $987.44 per paycheck, $25,673 a year (14.4% to taxes); $45,000 → $1,425.60 per paycheck, $37,066 a year (17.6% to taxes); $60,000 → $1,863.78 per paycheck, $48,458 a year (19.2% to taxes); $75,000 → $2,269.26 per paycheck, $59,001 a year (21.3% to taxes); $100,000 → $2,903.40 per paycheck, $75,488 a year (24.5% to taxes); $150,000 → $4,149.98 per paycheck, $107,899 a year (28.1% to taxes); $250,000 → $6,510.75 per paycheck, $169,280 a year (30.8% to taxes).

In national-average dollars, after Denver's price level of 105.8: $30,000 buys $24,270, $45,000 buys $35,040, $60,000 buys $45,810, $75,000 buys $55,776, $100,000 buys $71,362, $150,000 buys $102,002, $250,000 buys $160,027. The gap between the paycheck and what it buys is the same 5.5% at every rung, but it matters most at the bottom, where housing takes the largest share.

Hourly rates in Denver: six examples

At 40 hours a week, paid every two weeks: $15 an hour → $1,022.50 take-home (85.2% of $1,200.00); $18 an hour → $1,204.78 take-home (83.7% of $1,440.00); $22 an hour → $1,447.82 take-home (82.3% of $1,760.00); $25 an hour → $1,630.10 take-home (81.5% of $2,000.00); $30 an hour → $1,933.90 take-home (80.6% of $2,400.00); $40 an hour → $2,477.27 take-home (77.4% of $3,200.00). The share kept falls slowly with the rate because federal brackets are progressive while FICA is flat.

Every rate has its own page under hourly to salary, and the Colorado hourly calculator adds overtime, tips and multiple rates.

Two earners in Denver

A couple in Denver each earning $60,000 has two paychecks that, filled in correctly, look like this: with the step 2(c) box checked on both W-4s, each keeps $1,891.02 every two weeks; without it — each employer assuming its paycheck is the household's only income — each keeps $1,974.87, $83.85 more per paycheck, and the household under-withholds by about $4,360 over the year, which arrives as a bill in April. The box exists precisely to prevent that.

The dual income calculator works the household as a whole — both salaries, the joint return, the marriage penalty or bonus — and the W-4 fixer gives each spouse the exact lines.

A bonus in Denver

A $5,000 bonus paid with the $85,000 salary's regular paycheck is withheld federally at the flat 22% — $1,100 — plus Colorado's supplemental withholding: the bonus paycheck comes to $6,031.96 against the usual $2,522.92, so $3,509.04 of the $5,000 arrives. The tax actually due on the bonus at the 22% federal marginal rate is $1,100, so the flat withholding under-withholds and the difference is owed at filing. The bonus tax calculator shows both IRS methods for Colorado.

Year end in Denver: the W-2 and the refund

In January your employer's W-2 reports the year's wages and withholding: box 1 federal taxable wages (after the 401(k)), box 3 Social Security wages (before it, capped at $184,500), box 5 Medicare wages, box 2 federal tax withheld, boxes 16 and 17 Colorado wages and tax. If box 3 is larger than box 1, the difference is your pre-tax retirement contribution; if boxes 1, 3 and 5 are all equal, nothing was taken pre-tax. From 2026 the W-2 also reports qualified overtime and tips separately, for the new deductions.

On the $85,000 example with a clean W-4, the year's federal withholding of $9,870 matches the projected tax of $9,870 within a few dollars, so the federal return settles close to zero. The «withholding vs what you owe» box under the calculator gives the projection for your own figures.

Your first paycheck in Denver: a checklist

Federal W-4: filing status, step 2 if there is a second income in the household, step 3 for children. Colorado Form DR 0004: Optional; without it the employer uses your federal W-4. Denver's charge is withheld by the employer automatically; check it appears on the stub as the city publishes it. Compare the first stub with the pay stub preview above, line by line.

If you moved to Denver from a city that taxes wages — New York, Philadelphia, an Ohio city — the missing line is real and permanent, not a payroll error. If you moved the other way, the new line is real too, and it is worth checking the resident or non-resident rate is the one being applied.