The Colorado minimum wage for 2026 — the official rate, the tipped cash wage and tip credit, what full-time work pays per year, month and week, and what is left after tax, all from the U.S. Department of Labor tables. Every figure updates live as you change the hours.
After tax, a single filer at the full rate keeps $26,838 a year — $516 a week, $12.90 from every hour. Total tax is 14.9% of gross pay ($15.16/hr × 40 hrs × 52 wks = $31,533 gross).
Each bar is one slice of the full-time year at the Colorado minimum wage. What is left at the bottom is take-home pay.
The same year of work at the Colorado rate, divided the four ways people actually budget. Bi-weekly is the most common US pay schedule.
| Period | Gross | Tax | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per year | $31,533 | -$4,695 | $26,838 |
| Per month | $2,628 | -$391 | $2,236 |
| Per bi-weekly paycheck | $1,213 | -$181 | $1,032 |
| Per week | $606 | -$90 | $516 |
Gross, tax and take-home all run on the same pay: the Colorado minimum wage at the hours and weeks above.
| Line | Per year | Per bi-weekly | Per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay (full-rate total) | $31,533 | $1,213 | $606 |
| Federal income tax | -$1,604 | -$62 | -$31 |
| Social Security | -$1,955 | -$75 | -$38 |
| Medicare | -$457 | -$18 | -$9 |
| Colorado income tax | -$679 | -$26 | -$13 |
| Total tax | -$4,695 | -$181 | -$90 |
| Take-home pay | $26,838 | $1,032 | $516 |
Withholding in real life follows the IRS and Colorado withholding tables paycheck by paycheck, so an individual check can differ by a few dollars from this annualised estimate; the year-end totals are what the tables aim at.
Gross pay per week at $15.16 an hour, by schedule — before tax. The highlighted row is the full-time schedule used across this page.
Figure W The hours ladder — the Colorado minimum wage at three schedules
Start with the rate: $15.16 × 40 hours × 52 weeks = $31,533 of gross pay for a full-time year. The tax layers then come off. Federal income tax is $1,604; Social Security and Medicare together take $2,412; Colorado income tax takes $679 of it. Total tax is $4,695 — an effective rate of 14.9% of gross pay.
What is left is $26,838 a year: $2,236 a month, $1,032 per bi-weekly paycheck, $516 a week. Spread over the 2,080 hours worked, that is $12.90 kept from every hour — the figure to set against a job offer in another state. For a tipped worker, the employer-paid part of that gross can be as low as $25,251 a year in cash wages, with tips covering at least the remaining $6,282.
The rules behind the rate — the things a generic calculator gets wrong about Colorado.
Colorado adjusts its wage every January 1 for inflation; Denver’s local wage is higher, at $19.29 in 2026.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage & Hour Division — Consolidated State Minimum Wage Table (2026).
An employer in Colorado may pay a tipped worker $12.14 an hour in cash wages and claim a tip credit of up to $3.02 an hour — but only if the worker's tips actually bring the total to at least the full $15.16. If tips fall short in any workweek, the employer must make up the difference; the credit is never a discount on slow nights. At exactly the legal minimum total, a full-time tipped worker's taxable pay is the same $31,533 a year as a standard worker's, which is the basis for the after-tax figures on this page.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage & Hour Division — Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (2026).
At $31,533 of gross pay, a single filer in Colorado pays $1,604 in federal income tax and $2,412 in Social Security and Medicare; Colorado income tax takes $679 of it. Total tax is $4,695 — an effective rate of 14.9% — leaving $26,838 a year, $516 a week, or $12.90 kept from every hour worked. Colorado taxes wages at one flat rate of 4.4% — run the same gross through the Colorado paycheck calculator and the figures agree to the dollar.
Source: Tax Foundation — 2026 State Income Tax Rates and Brackets.
The minimum wage in Colorado is $15.16 an hour in 2026. Colorado adjusts its wage every January 1 for inflation; Denver’s local wage is higher, at $19.29 in 2026. At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, the rate is worth $31,533 a year before tax.
At $15.16 an hour, full-time work (40 hours × 52 weeks) pays $31,533 a year, $2,628 a month, $1,213 per bi-weekly paycheck and $606 a week before tax. After tax, a single filer keeps $26,838 a year — $2,236 a month and $516 a week. Part-time scales in proportion: 20 hours a week pays $15,766 a year.
A tipped worker in Colorado must receive at least $12.14 an hour in cash wages, and tips must take the total to at least the full $15.16 an hour — the employer may claim a tip credit of up to $3.02. If tips fall short, the employer pays the difference. Over a full-time year at exactly the minimum, that is $25,251 in cash wages plus at least $6,282 in tips.
On $31,533 of full-time pay, a single filer pays $4,695 in total tax in 2026: $1,604 federal income tax, $2,412 Social Security and Medicare, and $679 to Colorado. The effective rate is 14.9%, leaving take-home pay of $26,838 a year. Real withholding follows the payroll tables check by check, so an individual paycheck can differ by a few dollars.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. Colorado's $15.16 is $7.91 an hour more — worth $16,453 a year to a full-time worker before tax ($15,080 at the federal rate against $31,533 at Colorado's). Most US workers are covered by whichever of the two rates is higher, so the state rate is the one that binds in Colorado.
Colorado minimum wage in 2026 is $15.16 an hour (tipped cash wage $12.14): what full-time pays per year, month and week, and the take-home after tax on the official DOL figures.
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What the Colorado minimum wage actually is in 2026 and what it pays: the official $15.16 rate and the $12.14 tipped cash wage, full-time pay per year, month and week, and the after-tax waterfall for a single filer on the same verified engine as the state paycheck calculators.
In Colorado the 2026 minimum wage of $15.16 an hour is worth $31,533 a year to a full-time worker before tax, and $26,838 after tax for a single filer — $516 a week in hand.
Every wage figure on the page comes from the U.S. Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division 2026 tables (the consolidated state table and the tipped-employees table); the tax figures run on the canonical 2026 state dataset, so this page and the Colorado paycheck calculator agree to the dollar on the same gross pay.
$15.16 an hour. Colorado adjusts its wage every January 1 for inflation; Denver’s local wage is higher, at $19.29 in 2026.
The wage figures are the U.S. Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division’s published 2026 state tables; the tax figures use the same verified 2026 dataset as the AsadWebs state paycheck calculators.
No — it runs on the statewide rate. Where a city or county sets a higher wage (the page notes the ones the Department of Labor records), the higher local rate is the one that binds for work there.
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