Bartenders in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$23,348
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$4,592
16.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$25,952
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
$27,940
Kept after tax
$23,348
Worth in national money
$25,952
State rank
36
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Kansas pays bartenders a middle wage of $27,940, 36 of 51 states and about 18.64% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Kansas this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, bartenders ranks 480. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $27,940 you keep $23,348 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $25,952 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $35,780, since top earners drag the number up.
- Kansas's $27,940 median for bartenders places it 36 of 51 states, about 18.64% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Kansas reports, bartenders ranks 480 of 488, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Kansas is $23,348 after the full tax stack, from $27,940. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $25,952 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $35,780 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bartenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $17,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $27,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $66,010 |
| This salary | $27,940 |
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 | $23,348 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $24,619 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$618 |
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 | $26,397 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$734 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of bartenders in Kansas earn under $27,940 and half over. The published range runs $17,150 at the tenth percentile to $66,010 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Kansas the take-home figure of $23,348, from $27,940, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 480 of 488 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kansas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $25,952, the adjusted value of that $27,940 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 480 of 488 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for bartenders in Kansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $17,150 to $66,010; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Kansas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $23,348 from $27,940. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 480 of 488 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kansas, so $25,952 — the adjusted value of that $27,940 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 480 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $35,780, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $17,150 and the top tenth $66,010 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Kansas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $25,952 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Kansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $23,348 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $35,780. 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 ($17,150) and the ninetieth ($66,010) 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 $25,952 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 $23,348 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.