Paramedic Salary in Colorado 2026,
$63,910 Median | BLS Data by City

Colorado paramedics earn a median $63,910 a year, $30.73 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $59,790 and $78,270 and a full range of $49,110 to $87,320. That is 5.5% above the $60,600 national median.

Greeley at $66,830, then Pueblo at $65,310, Denver-Aurora-Centennial at $65,090, Fort Collins-Loveland at $64,680 and Colorado Springs at $63,360. Greeley and Pueblo out-paying the Denver metro reflects harder recruitment in markets where fewer paramedics choose to live.

About eighteen thousand dollars at the median — $63,910 against the state EMT median. In a state where EMT pay varies by under four thousand dollars across every published metro, the paramedic certification is by far the most consequential decision available in Colorado EMS, and it is why almost every serious EMS career here runs through it.

It is a model that uses paramedics for scheduled, home-based care rather than emergency response — following up after discharge, managing chronic conditions, assessing patients who would otherwise call an ambulance. Colorado has developed the model further than most states, and it offers paramedics daytime scheduled work as an alternative to the shift patterns of emergency response, which matters for career longevity in a physically demanding job.

A flat 4.4% state income tax that applies to overtime at the same rate as base pay — an advantage in a job built on additional hours. Denver, Aurora, Greenwood Village, Glendale and Sheridan add a small flat monthly occupational privilege tax based on the work location, measured in dollars a month.

It makes scope local. A Colorado county medical director authorises which advanced procedures and medications a paramedic may use, so two paramedics with identical certification in adjacent counties may practise differently. That has practical consequences: moving services can mean re-credentialling, and the clinical richness of a job depends heavily on how progressive the county's protocols are. Anyone choosing between Colorado services should be asking about the medical direction as directly as about the pay.

The annual figures reflect long-shift EMS scheduling with overtime built in, so $63,910 in a twenty-four-hour-tour system is not equivalent to the same figure in a forty-hour job, and the fatigue cost is real. The workforce is also small — about 2,110 statewide — so the percentile estimates come from a modest sample. And the mountain resort communities, which face the sharpest staffing and housing pressures in Colorado EMS, are not separately published anywhere on this table.

Employer type, then specialisation. Fire-based paramedic positions carry fire department pay scales, benefits and pension treatment, which is a materially different proposition from a private or hospital-affiliated ambulance role — and that difference accounts for much of the gap between the $63,910 median and the $78,270 seventy-fifth percentile. Beyond it, flight and critical care transport certification, community paramedicine roles, field supervision and clinical education reach the $87,320 ninetieth percentile.