- The middle half earn between $47.55 and $73.76 an hour.
- Colorado ranks 14th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- Colorado pays more than all 7 neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 12,550 general contractors on payrolls in Colorado.
- At the state median wage, a general contracting business needs to bill about $175.99 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
General Contractor pay in Colorado, bottom to top
BLS has no separate wage figure for general contractors. These are its numbers for construction managers, the group BLS files general contractors under. They count managers on a payroll, so owners who run their own contracting business are not in them.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $37.58 | $78,160 | $33.50 |
| 25th percentile | $47.55 | $98,890 | $42.57 |
| Median | $60.02 | $124,830 | $55.28 |
| 75th percentile | $73.76 | $153,420 | $72.91 |
| 90th percentile | $92.04 | $191,450 | $91.08 |
| Average (mean) | $61.75 | $128,440 | $59.79 |
Pay is bunched up in Colorado. The top tenth earn $92.04 an hour or more, about 2.4 times the $37.58 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 2.7 times, so the step from the bottom of the scale to the top is shorter here than in most places.
Both ends of the scale beat the national figures: $37.58 against $33.50 at the bottom tenth, and $92.04 against $91.08 at the top.
The average, $61.75, is close to the median, so pay sits fairly evenly around the middle.
How Colorado compares with other states
Over a full year, the Colorado median of $124,830 is $9,840 more than the national $114,990.
In the state ranking, Colorado sits 14th, between Connecticut ($60.19) and Minnesota ($59.33). The range runs from $41.50 in Arkansas to $74.69 in New York.
Colorado pays general contractors more than any of its neighboring states, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming. Someone working near the border can earn more by taking work on this side of it.
These are wages as paid, not adjusted for what it costs to live in Colorado. Rent, home prices and taxes decide how far a higher wage goes.
| Neighboring state | Median hourly | Median yearly | Against Colorado |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | $60.02 | $124,830 | |
| Arizona | $55.14 | $114,680 | −$4.88 an hour |
| Kansas | $58.08 | $120,810 | −$1.94 an hour |
| Nebraska | $48.47 | $100,820 | −$11.55 an hour |
| New Mexico | $50.26 | $104,550 | −$9.76 an hour |
| Oklahoma | $48.41 | $100,690 | −$11.61 an hour |
| Utah | $50.58 | $105,200 | −$9.44 an hour |
| Wyoming | $44.39 | $92,320 | −$15.63 an hour |
How many general contractors work in Colorado
About 12,550 general contractors work on payrolls in Colorado, 3.3% of the 380,360 nationwide, the 7th largest count among the states.
The trade is a bigger part of the local job market than it is nationally: 4.4 of every 1,000 jobs in Colorado, 1.8 times the national share.
What a general contracting business in Colorado should charge
Higher wages in Colorado go straight into the price. Take a general contracting business in Colorado paying the state median of $60.02 and run it through the labor rate calculator with its starting numbers (40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit).
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $60.02 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $134,392 |
| Break-even rate | ($134,392 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $149.59 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $149.59 ÷ 0.85 | $175.99 |
That is $175.99 per billable hour, 2.9 times the wage, and $8.32 more than the $167.67 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $73.76 in Colorado, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $200.12.
At this wage the pay itself is the biggest part of the price, so every raise shows up in the rate: a dollar more an hour adds about $1.76 per billed hour.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Working as a general contractor in Colorado
- Licensing. What Colorado asks for before you can work on your own: General contractor license in Colorado.
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how general contractors run on Koira.
- Getting found. The free Koira report checks how your business shows up in search and on maps against shops near you.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 11-9021, construction managers, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: general contractor salary by state.