Clinical and Counseling Psychologists in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$75,223
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$23,917
24.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$83,148
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
$99,140
Kept after tax
$75,223
Worth in national money
$83,148
State rank
22
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Kentucky pays this job around $99,140 at the midpoint, 22 of 48 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Kentucky. It ranks 49 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $99,140 you keep $75,223 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $83,148 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $109,760, since top earners drag the number up.
- For clinical and counseling psychologists the Kentucky median is $99,140, ranking 22 of 48 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Kentucky, clinical and counseling psychologists ranks 49 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $75,223 after the full tax stack, from $99,140. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $83,148 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $109,760 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Clinical and Counseling Psychologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $99,140 |
| Top tenth earn over | $174,820 |
| This salary | $99,140 |
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 | $75,223 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $78,575 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,289 |
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 | $94,375 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,162 |
| 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 $99,140. The published range is $49,220 up to $174,820, 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 $75,223, worked from $99,140. 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 49 of 491.
- Two cautions on $83,148, the adjusted value of that $99,140 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 49 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for clinical and counseling psychologists in Kentucky the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,220 to $174,820. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Kentucky take-home of $75,223, on $99,140 for work ranking 49 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 49 of 491 in the state.
- This $83,148 adjusted figure, worked from $99,140, 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 49 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 49 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $109,760, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $49,220, the highest tenth $174,820, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $83,148 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 $75,223.
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 48 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 Kentucky is $109,760. 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 ($49,220) and the ninetieth ($174,820) 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 $83,148 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 $75,223 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.