Compliance Officers in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$55,235
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$14,005
20.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,054
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
$69,240
Kept after tax
$55,235
Worth in national money
$61,054
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for compliance officers is on the low side in Kentucky. The middle earner gets $69,240. That is 42 of 51 states, and about 14.23% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 131 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 $69,240 the take-home is $55,235; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $61,054 would nationally. The average comes to $72,580, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For compliance officers, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $69,240, ranking 42 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 14.23%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Compliance officers ranks 131 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 compliance officers in Kentucky, on $69,240, is $55,235 — equivalent to $61,054 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 $72,580 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Compliance Officers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $69,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $109,300 |
| This salary | $69,240 |
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 | $55,235 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $57,540 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,841 |
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 | $66,029 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,543 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $69,240 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $43,120 and the ninetieth is $109,300 — 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 $55,235, worked from $69,240. 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 131 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kentucky, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $61,054, the adjusted value of that $69,240 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 131 of 491 in the state.
- The Kentucky median of $69,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $43,120 to $109,300. 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 $55,235, on $69,240 for work ranking 131 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 131 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kentucky, so $61,054 — the adjusted value of that $69,240 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 131 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 $72,580, 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 $43,120 and the top tenth $109,300 — 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. Kentucky is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $61,054 in national terms.
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, $55,235 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $72,580. 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 ($43,120) and the ninetieth ($109,300) 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 $61,054 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 $55,235 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.