ICU Travel Nurse Pay in Denver, CO (2026): What a $1,919 Week Actually Nets

Search “ICU travel nurse pay Denver” and most of what comes back is individual job listings, each with its own weekly figure, often an estimate, sometimes with the breakdown hidden behind a sign-up prompt. A listing’s weekly number is a blended total of taxable wages and tax-free stipends. It tells you what the package costs the agency, not what lands in your account.

This guide takes one published benchmark, shows what two different pay structures do to it, and sets it against the one Denver figure the federal government publishes: the GSA per diem ceiling.

The Benchmark: Colorado ICU Travel Jobs

BluePipes’ Colorado ICU travel listings page (read 12 October 2026) states an average of $1,939 per week and a median of $1,919 per week for Travel Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse jobs, “over the last 7 days,” across 221 Colorado ICU jobs listed that day. The pay figures carry no date of their own, and the window is a rolling seven days, so the number moves as listings come and go.

Two limits matter:

• It covers all of Colorado, not Denver. Denver is the biggest market, but the figure also includes mountain and Front Range hospitals. We do not have a Denver-only number from a source we can verify, so we do not print one.
• It is an advertised figure, not a paycheck. It is what listings say, before tax, and it does not tell you how much of the week is taxable.

We will use the $1,919 median for the rest of this guide, as a round starting point, not a prediction for your offer.

One Weekly Figure, Two Very Different Structures

A travel package is usually a modest taxable hourly wage plus tax-free housing and meals stipends. Two offers can carry the same blended weekly total and split it differently. Here are two illustrations of a $1,919 week at 36 hours. They are examples, not real offers. Both assume a single filer with a valid tax home, the 2026 standard deduction, and income at this rate for a full year.

About $43 a week apart, from nothing but the split. The gap grows with overtime, which is paid on the taxable rate. Blended Rate vs. Taxable Rate walks through why.

The federal figures use the 2026 brackets and standard deduction from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 and the FICA rates from SSA, the same sourced inputs the Pay Calculator uses.

Colorado tax is not in that table, on purpose. Colorado levies a state income tax on wages, and this site has no sourced Colorado bracket schedule, so the calculator withholds a net figure for Colorado rather than invent one. A Colorado assignment taxes your wages there even if your tax home is elsewhere, and if your permanent home is in a state that taxes residents, that state may tax them too. Take the “before Colorado tax” line as an upper bound and add your own state’s tax on top.

The Government Number: Denver’s GSA Stipend Ceiling

Denver is in GSA’s “Denver / Aurora” locality. For fiscal year 2027, effective 1 October 2026:

• Meals & Incidental Expenses (M&IE): $92/day, or $644/week, all year
• Combined weekly ceiling: about $2,233 in the April–October season and $1,834 in November–March

That is a $399 a week swing in the legal ceiling, depending on when your assignment starts. Compare a housing stipend to the lodging line only. The combined figure applies only when meals and incidentals are paid as well.

The ceiling caps what an accountable-plan stipend can pay a nurse with a valid tax home. It is not what a typical package pays. Both example stipends above sit under Denver’s lodging-plus-M&IE ceiling in either season. Check any offer against GSA’s own lookup for your dates, or use the GSA Rate Explorer and the Denver GSA page.

Rent is the other side. Our editorial estimate for a Denver one-bedroom is on the Denver city guide. It is our estimate, not measured data, so check current listings for your actual dates.

Turning a Specific Offer Into a Real Number

1. Enter the offer’s taxable hourly rate, hours and stipends in the Pay Calculator, assignment state Colorado.
2. Check the housing stipend against $1,589 (April–October) or $1,190 (November–March), and housing plus meals against $2,233 or $1,834.
3. Confirm the stipend is yours to receive. It needs a valid tax home; the Tax Home Validator walks through the IRS tests.
4. Grade the whole package with Contract Grade. It scores against Colorado statewide pay data scaled by specialty, not a Denver-specific figure.
5. For the fine print a weekly headline never shows, such as guaranteed hours and cancellation terms, read How to Read a Travel Nurse Contract Offer.

For the specialty overall, see the ICU travel nurse page. For the wider picture on how pay rates are quoted and compared, see How Much Do Travel Nurses Make and the Colorado pay guide. The same method, applied to other cities, is in the Houston ICU guide and the Seattle ICU guide.

Data reviewed October 2026. GSA per diem figures come from GSA’s published FY2027 locality rates (see our methodology). Federal tax figures come from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 and SSA. The weekly figures attributed to BluePipes are that source’s own, as of the date shown. Our city and specialty pay estimates are editorial, not measured, surveyed or aggregated from contract data. This is general information, not tax advice.