Art Directors in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,675
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$12,786
21.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,992
Kansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kansas — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$60,460
Kept after tax
$47,675
Worth in national money
$52,992
State rank
46
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Kansas is among the lower-paying states for art directors. The middle earner takes $60,460, ranking 46 of 46 states — about 47.36% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Kansas, this sits in the middle: 204 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $60,460 you keep $47,675 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $52,992 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $76,950, since top earners drag the number up.
- Kansas ranks 46 of 46 for art directors, with a median of $60,460 — about 47.36% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Art directors ranks 204 of 488 occupations in Kansas by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Retained pay in Kansas is $47,675 after the full tax stack, from $60,460. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $52,992 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $76,950 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,350 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $121,470 |
| This salary | $60,460 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Kansas | $47,675 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,760 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$757 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $56,620 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$916 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $60,460 as a midpoint for Kansas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,350 and the ninetieth is $121,470 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kansas's $47,675, worked from $60,460. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 204 of 488.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,992 uses one figure for the whole of Kansas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 204.
- The Kansas median of $60,460 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,350 to $121,470. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Kansas take-home of $47,675, on $60,460 for work ranking 204 of 488 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 204 of 488 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,992, worked from $60,460, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Kansas address, on work sitting at 204 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $76,950 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,350, the highest tenth $121,470, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $52,992.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Kansas's own levy, $47,675 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Kansas is $76,950. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($38,350) and the ninetieth ($121,470) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Kansas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $52,992 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $47,675 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kansas income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.