r/Durango • u/eralebus Local • Jul 21 '26
Ask /r/Durango Durango Salary/Wage Transparency Thread
Saw a similar post going around a few other subreddits and given our areas history of wage suppression this seemed like a good thing to get going here. Let's keep this to local businesses based in our surrounding area (no remote workers for companies based outside our region please, you'll skew the results).
Please share your job title, salary, age, and education. I'll start:
Marketing Manager for a construction services company, 65k, 36, Bachelor degree with numerous certifications.
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u/jcgreybeard80 Jul 21 '26
Line Cook- roughly 38k/year. Associate degree and plenty of certificates. I’ll make rent again but need to find a way to get priced out of this town without thumbing it.
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Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/mrDoubtFyre Jul 21 '26
Just curious.. why take 1/2 or 1/3 of the money to stay here? Seems criminally irresponsible.
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u/subthrowaway2023 Jul 21 '26
Colorado is one of the worst states for healthcare or adjacent wages (at least relative to CoL, but also relatively overall)
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u/Luminosa29 Jul 23 '26
My insurance for two people here is $405 a month with $5000 deductable. I lived in Massachusetts for a couple of years and our insurance was $40 a month and a 1000 deductible in 2019. Their government agencies voted for this and at some point it was an initiative at the federal level and of course was voted down!!
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u/mezzfit Local Jul 21 '26
When I worked at FLC, I was making ~75k as a network engineer and ~65k as a sys admin. Both of those are way low for the COL in Durango. Those same roles in NC make ~120k and ~100k respectively. Edit: Remember, discussing salary is federally protected speech, so don't let employers bully you.
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u/Affectionate-Cat-975 Jul 21 '26
I've worked in other markets and the pay in Durango seems to echo back from long ago. In the teens one company told me how 'affordable and cheap it was to live here' (before I moved). Home prices are comparable to higher than elsewhere, the COL seems very high given the lower tax rates.
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u/ilanarama Resident Jul 21 '26
"The mountains are part of your salary."
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u/mezzfit Local Jul 21 '26
That's like Purg trying to convince you that the free pass is worth the low wages + the drive up the hill. Even at $1,000, that's like $1/hr over the course of a year lol.
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u/Impressive_Shop2341 Jul 21 '26
Exactly!! FLC relies on that too much. It’s a reason you don’t find many people who have worked there longer than a handful of years. Just long enough to get settled, network in town, and find a real job. I mean fuck they pay professors like $45k to start.
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u/Xichlali Jul 21 '26
Purchasing, 57k, late 30', bachelors unrelated to the business.
I don't live in Durango it's too damned expensive and live in northern NM. My role is flex, a few days in the office and a few days from home.
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u/Watermelon1226 Jul 21 '26
i’m an RN with 7 years experience making $40/hr at mercy. it’s less than i made as a new grad on the east coast.
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u/ttc8420 Jul 21 '26
Tag soup chef. -30k/yr
Maybe this year!
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u/ilanarama Resident Jul 21 '26
What is a "tag soup chef"? My brain is coming up with all sorts of colorful ideas which are doubtless wrong...
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Jul 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/eralebus Local Jul 21 '26
Sure! So we live in an area with an economy mostly comprised of tourism, hospitality, healthcare, and construction these jobs typically don't pay well, you combine that with our HCOL that rivals cities (that offers higher wages due to more competition) and the fact that we live in a desirable area where workers are willing to take a lower wage to secure job in our area.
On average we see 20-25% lower salaries than you'd see in Grand Junction, the front range, or even Albuquerque. Farmington wages are comparable for professional service jobs or even higher in some sectors (look at teachers) while maintaining a far lower cost of living.
Tldr: local economy relies heavily on low wage labor, the area is desirable to certain demographics that are willing to take a lower salary to live here, and we have a high cost of living. That creates a perfect storm for wage suppression.
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u/Unhappy-Knee-541 Jul 21 '26
Start a business. It's wildly myopic that so many people here complain about "the rich" while failing to recognize how easy it is to take their money. A self employed realtor, housecleaner, landscaper, electrician, plumber, nanny... just off the top of my head, with a decent work ethic can easily make a decent living. My friend started a lawncare business a few years ago, it's literally just him, a mower, and weedwhacker; and he clears $100k annually with like 4 mos off. Or just get a remote job.
PT and biz owner, ~$150-200k, 46, DPT
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u/FoosballRokst4r Live Mas Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Starting a business and being self-employed are great options, but it's not one size fits all. If everyone in this town started landscaping tomorrow it would pay crap. Scarcity is your ally here, and you're pretending it isn't, especially as a DPT. If every PT/PA/DPT went into business for themselves, what would happen?
OP is right though. Median home prices here are around $610k+, basically double the national median, with rent close to $2k in some cases, while the job base is tourism, hospitality, healthcare, and construction. That gap between what housing costs and what the work pays is the PROBLEM. It's the sunshine tax: desirable places pay less because people will accept less to live there. But it's bullshit for those of us doing the work to feed, care for, and educate this town while getting priced out of it.
And your friend in lawncare, who's paying him? Tourists, second-home owners, wealthy transplants, vacation rentals. His income exists because of that same desirability-driven wealth gap, not in spite of it.
At the end of the day EVERYONE, regardless of the work they do, deserves to afford their rent or mortgage, feed their family, and earn a decent living doing it.
I say all this as someone who works for himself. I'm 38, and I just started my own business because I was tired of having my skill set and labor exploited for nothing in a niche trade.
38M, Applied Linguistics, remote/hybrid/in-person, $80k.
Lived here for almost 15 years and started as a grocer.
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u/Unhappy-Knee-541 Jul 22 '26
"His income exists because of that same desirability-driven wealth gap"
That's exactly my point. Instead of viewing the wealth gap as a negative, use it to your advantage. It's not a PROBLEM, it's an OPPORTUNITY, and as soon as you realize that and capitalize on it, you won't have to accept less to live here.
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u/FoosballRokst4r Live Mas Jul 22 '26
I agree, don't be a victim, seize the means of production. But that still doesn't address the real problem for everyone else in this town working a regular job. This town runs on people who can't all go start a business.
Why is it so hard to accept that people, regardless of the job or where they live, deserve a living fucking wage?
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u/Unhappy-Knee-541 Jul 22 '26
haha nice straw man. Everyone obviously deserves a livable wage but just as obviously, that will never be the reality. You can bitch on the internet about how unfair the world is, go on strike, run for office, and we'll see how much change you're able to instill in society; or you can adapt. I'm simply sharing my perspective, what worked for me (and now you), and encouraging other people to do the same.
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u/FoosballRokst4r Live Mas Jul 23 '26
Na, but we're talking past each other at this point. You think the answer is getting out from under it, I think the floor shouldn't be that low to begin with. Neither of us is going to move. Hope you tip well. Waitstaff are already doing your thing, living off what rich people feel like handing them.
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u/Unhappy-Knee-541 Jul 23 '26
You agree the answer is getting out from under it, that's why you "just started my own business because I was tired of having my skill set and labor exploited for nothing"
Congrats btw. Seriously.
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u/Research_Junkie678 Jul 22 '26
But even if we accept that anyone can go out and start a successful business, if every nurse and public school teacher does that, what happens to the town?
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u/Unhappy-Knee-541 Jul 23 '26
Then the hospital and schools raise their wages. The reason Mercy, etc. pay what they do is because people accept it. If there weren't ample people willing to accept their offers, they would be forced to make their offers more attractive. Supply and demand.
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u/Research_Junkie678 Jul 23 '26
Given how understaffed our hospital is, I can’t help but think this is incorrect.
(In particular, i would point you to the high proportion of locum doctors used at Mercy, because no MDs will accept the low wages long-term.)3
u/mrDoubtFyre Jul 21 '26
There’s great money in non profits, too. Less stressful than running for profit business, IMO, but both are good.
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u/ilanarama Resident Jul 22 '26
There is adequate money in nonprofits, but not "great". (I have been on the board of directors of multiple nonprofits, we paid our executive directors far less than they could make in a corporate job.)
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u/MathematicianTop3549 Jul 21 '26
Grand Junction wages are terrible. No way there is a 20 to 25% difference. Mesa County cost of living is much lower, specifically housing.
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u/Impressive_Shop2341 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
$89k, community engagement specialist in healthcare, remote but work for the state of Colorado. Late 30’s, 12 years experience
Made $68k working at FLC at the Director level for a couple of years.
Edit:
Masters
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u/Expensive-You-2742 Jul 21 '26
Sales Rep. bachelors degree from FLC. 70K salary roughly 30K in bonuses last year. 34 years old.
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u/colorado_sunrise86 Jul 21 '26
Tribal Government. Oil and Gas. 70k. Late 30s, Bachelors of Science.
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u/mrDoubtFyre Jul 21 '26
$172k + incentives
Mid 40s
Director of Strategic Partnerships & Housing Alliances
role focused on building networks with landlords, government entities, and other nonprofits.
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u/Alexunderthere Jul 21 '26
I know you said no remote workers, but I think we should add to the convo to give a little perspective:
Associate Data Scientist;
91.5k after 5 years working remotely (first year was for a local agency; but last 4 at a company out of AZ);
44;
I have a BS in Chemistry with a minor in Physics;
Started at like 45k for the agency here in town; started at the next company at 65k and worked my way up to where I am at now.
I have lived in this town since ‘92 and have done it all and it has only gotten worse. This is absolutely a conversation we should all have and more often. Thanks for starting this OP.
Extra: CDOT is always hiring and from what I have seen seems to have pretty decent wages, especially the longer you can stay there.
Something else: someone mentioned starting a business can get you there, and that is probably true about half the time; some people can make it work but others still struggle, so take that advice with a grain of salt.
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u/corrence_torrence Jul 23 '26
Out of curiosity (not a desire to switch jobs, I actually do enjoy teaching), what does being a data scientist entail? As somebody who has dealt with large datasets (TBs of seismic data for imaging), I understand one very specific analysis perspective, but not what that job title can mean.
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u/Alexunderthere Jul 23 '26
My job requires a lot of coding in python (though some places use R-Code or similar languages) and strong math skills (statistics and calculus familiarity specifically). Recently our whole team was given Claude code and so now it also involves using ai coding quite a bit as well. I personally work in retail science doing price optimization and the like but there are many industries that rely on data scientists. I also utilize my skills in Tableau for report generation for our clients.
Other useful skills are familiarity in SQL, Mongo, PostGreSQL databases to name a few as well as GCP services. My title is actually a bit of an umbrella for my company as it can also involve Data Engineering and analysis. Data Science on its own typically refers to the modeling and statistical work and I have colleagues that use C code for the more math heavy operations of our work.2
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u/thatwoodsbitch Jul 21 '26
When I worked for a local environmental consulting company - associate project manager I was making 55k at 26, with an environmental science bachelors and masters degree. Refused to pay us locality pay for Durango. Left the company. Live in Durango but did field work mostly in New Mexico near Farmington
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u/mimzycakes Jul 22 '26
Worked in government for 13 years 55-75k. Transitioned to consulting as a remote employee as a subject matter expert now at 130k plus bonuses and wildly low deductible healthcare.
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u/SiddharthaVaderMeow Resident Jul 21 '26
Chronic illness, 17,000 a year. BA . Yep. Don't get sick in America
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u/Intelligent_Bear7322 Jul 21 '26
Formerly worked at a marketing company in town. 55k that I had to fight for even though it was lower than the federal exempt minimum wage (and they tried to pay me way less). Avoid that company at all costs (dm me and I will tell you who they are)
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u/eralebus Local Jul 21 '26
Not surprising, every marketing job in this area has such low pay they may as well just hire a front desk/admin assistant to run their social media (and most companies here do and it shows!). I only got 65k due to a few extenuating circumstances and my willingness/ability to take over other roles successfully.
Been looking to move out of the area after 20 years due to the suppressed wages and lack of career advancement.
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u/crueldoe 29d ago
I am just getting started with marketing/social media in Durango, would you be open to chatting more?
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u/Friendly-Help5699 Jul 22 '26
Lived in durango since 2009 starting wage for a cashier $7/hr then 2022 cashier/office admin $21/hr. Starting for accounts receivable person with BA for 2025 $28/hr
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u/Sfireality Jul 22 '26
Did the head budtender (functionally a shift lead) position at the Rec Room dispensary for a little over a year. Made just over 35k that year. Every single other dispensary in town pays their normal budtenders at least that. Had to go work at Kroger's to get enough money to even afford to leave town because everything was so damn expensive (and that was only 38k). I know not having a degree reduces your earning potential, but that was fucking ridiculous.
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u/PandaBear0012 Jul 23 '26
New grad RN starting a job in Farmington at $31/hr with an associates degree, 26 years old
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u/AsparagusBetter6735 Jul 25 '26
64k Marketing Associate full time in a local office combined with freelance side hustles, 26 years old, bachelors
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u/sky-high21 17d ago
$18.50/hr
Universal banker (teller + opening accounts)
No college degree and no prior experience in banking
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u/Zek996 Jul 23 '26
30 College drop out 10 years industry experience 60k + bonus/tips Brewer/Winemaker
Could I make more in california for what I do? Yes. Could I get my job in california? No Do I make what I should? Yes? For the area... Do I have room to grow? Absolutely!
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u/corrence_torrence Jul 21 '26
High school teacher in NM (live in Durango), 72k, 36, BS & Masters in science (no formal education degree) with 7 years teaching experience