Dietetic Technicians in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$24,561
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$4,409
15.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,149
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
$28,970
Kept after tax
$24,561
Worth in national money
$27,149
State rank
43
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for dietetic technicians is on the low side in Kentucky. The middle earner gets $28,970. That is 43 of 45 states, and about 23.03% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Kentucky publishes, dietetic technicians lands at 478. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $28,970 you keep $24,561 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $27,149 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $30,360, since top earners drag the number up.
- For dietetic technicians, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $28,970, ranking 43 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 23.03%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Kentucky, this work ranks 478 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $24,561 after the full tax stack, from $28,970. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $27,149 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $30,360 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Dietetic Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $22,580 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $28,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $38,250 |
| This salary | $28,970 |
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 | $24,561 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,457 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$951 |
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 | $27,870 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,151 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $28,970 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $22,580 and the ninetieth is $38,250 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $24,561 take-home in Kentucky comes from $28,970. 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 478 of 491.
- Two cautions on $27,149, the adjusted value of that $28,970 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 478 of 491 locally.
- The Kentucky median of $28,970 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $22,580 to $38,250. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $24,561, from $28,970, assumes a single Kentucky 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 478 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 43 of 45 for it.
- This $27,149 adjusted figure, worked from $28,970, 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 478 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 478 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 $30,360, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $22,580 and the top tenth $38,250, so most people doing this work in Kentucky sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $27,149 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 Kentucky adds its own income tax on top — which is why $24,561 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Kentucky is $30,360. 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 ($22,580 to $38,250) 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 $27,149 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 $24,561 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.