Business Operations Specialists, All Other in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,878
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$15,812
21.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,081
Kentucky costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kentucky — 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
$74,690
Kept after tax
$58,878
Worth in national money
$65,081
State rank
44
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Kentucky is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $74,690, ranking 44 of 51 states — about 10.07% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Within Kentucky this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 111 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $74,690 you keep $58,878 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $65,081 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $79,600, since top earners drag the number up.
- Kentucky ranks 44 of 51 for business operations specialists, all other, with a median of $74,690 — about 10.07% 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.
- Ranked against every occupation Kentucky publishes a median for, business operations specialists, all other sits 111 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $58,878 after the full tax stack, from $74,690. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $65,081 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $79,600 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Business Operations Specialists, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $119,430 |
| This salary | $74,690 |
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 Kentucky | $58,878 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,374 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,923 |
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 | $71,141 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,656 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Kentucky earn less than $74,690. The published range is $51,450 up to $119,430, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kentucky's $58,878, worked from $74,690. 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 111 of 491.
- Two cautions on $65,081, the adjusted value of that $74,690 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Kentucky. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 111 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for business operations specialists, all other in Kentucky the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $51,450 to $119,430. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Kentucky take-home of $58,878, on $74,690 for work ranking 111 of 491 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 111 of 491 in the state.
- This $65,081 adjusted figure, worked from $74,690, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 111 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 111 of 491 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 $79,600 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $51,450 and the top tenth $119,430 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $65,081.
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 Kentucky's own levy, $58,878 remains.
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 Kentucky is $79,600. 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 ($51,450) and the ninetieth ($119,430) 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?
Kentucky'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 $65,081 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 $58,878 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kentucky 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.