Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$27,697
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$5,353
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,615
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
$33,050
Kept after tax
$27,697
Worth in national money
$30,615
State rank
41
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 $33,050. That is 41 of 50 states, and about 7.32% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Kentucky publishes, this job lands at 454. 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 $33,050 you keep $27,697 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $30,615 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $34,970, since top earners drag the number up.
- For farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $33,050, ranking 41 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 7.32%. 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 454 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 $27,697 after the full tax stack, from $33,050. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $30,615 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $34,970 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $33,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,240 |
| This salary | $33,050 |
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 | $27,697 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $28,736 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,044 |
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 | $31,757 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,262 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $33,050 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,490 and the ninetieth is $49,240 — 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 $27,697, worked from $33,050. 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 454 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kentucky, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $30,615, the adjusted value of that $33,050 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 454 of 491 in the state.
- The Kentucky median of $33,050 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,490 to $49,240. 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 $27,697, on $33,050 for work ranking 454 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 454 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kentucky, so $30,615 — the adjusted value of that $33,050 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 454 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 $34,970, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $26,490 and the top tenth $49,240, so most people doing this work in Kentucky sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $30,615.
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, $27,697 remains.
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 $34,970. 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 ($26,490 to $49,240) 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 $30,615 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 $27,697 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.