Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,185
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$11,525
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,262
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
$59,710
Kept after tax
$48,185
Worth in national money
$53,262
State rank
37
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Kentucky. The middle earner gets $59,710. That is 37 of 50 states, and about 8.07% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 215 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Kentucky is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $59,710 the take-home is $48,185; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $53,262 would nationally. The average comes to $63,070, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For civil engineering technologists and technicians, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $59,710, ranking 37 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 8.07%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Civil engineering technologists and technicians ranks 215 of 491 occupations in Kentucky 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.
- Post-tax income for civil engineering technologists and technicians in Kentucky, on $59,710, is $48,185 — equivalent to $53,262 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $63,070 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,230 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,200 |
| This salary | $59,710 |
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 | $48,185 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,157 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,647 |
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 | $57,255 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,991 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $59,710 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,230 and the ninetieth is $75,200 — 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 Kentucky's $48,185, worked from $59,710. 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 215 of 491.
- Two cautions on $53,262, the adjusted value of that $59,710 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 215 of 491 locally.
- The Kentucky median of $59,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,230 to $75,200. 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 Kentucky take-home of $48,185, on $59,710 for work ranking 215 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 215 of 491 in the state.
- This $53,262 adjusted figure, worked from $59,710, 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 215 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 215 of 491 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 $63,070, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $49,230 at the tenth percentile, $75,200 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Kentucky sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $53,262 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Kentucky then takes its own share, leaving $48,185.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $63,070. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($49,230 to $75,200) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Kentucky rather than a national figure.
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 $53,262 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 $48,185 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.
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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.