Detectives and Criminal Investigators in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,175
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$17,565
23.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$64,664
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
$75,740
Kept after tax
$58,175
Worth in national money
$64,664
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Kansas. The middle earner gets $75,740. That is 40 of 51 states, and about 19.25% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 488 occupations Kansas reports figures for, this is number 125.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $75,740 you keep $58,175 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $64,664 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $78,750, since top earners drag the number up.
- For detectives and criminal investigators, Kansas sits in the lower band at $75,740, ranking 40 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 19.25%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- In Kansas's occupational distribution, detectives and criminal investigators sits at 125 of 488 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in Kansas is $58,175 after the full tax stack, from $75,740. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $64,664 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $78,750 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Detectives and Criminal Investigators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,610 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $114,030 |
| This salary | $75,740 |
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 | $58,175 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,113 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$746 |
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 | $70,143 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,030 |
| 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 detectives and criminal investigators in Kansas earn under $75,740 and half over. The published range runs $49,610 at the tenth percentile to $114,030 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $58,175 take-home in Kansas comes from $75,740. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 125 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kansas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $64,664, the adjusted value of that $75,740 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 125 of 488 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for detectives and criminal investigators in Kansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $49,610 to $114,030; 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.
- Retained pay of $58,175, from $75,740, assumes a single Kansas filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 125 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 40 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kansas, so $64,664 — the adjusted value of that $75,740 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 125 of 488 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 $78,750 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $49,610, the highest tenth $114,030, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $64,664 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 $58,175 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 $78,750. 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 ($49,610) and the ninetieth ($114,030) 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 $64,664 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 $58,175 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.