Financial Specialists, All Other in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,780
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$12,910
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,341
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
$65,690
Kept after tax
$52,780
Worth in national money
$58,341
State rank
44
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Kentucky pays financial specialists, all other a middle wage of $65,690, 44 of 50 states and about 19% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 146 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $65,690 you keep $52,780 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $58,341 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $75,010, since top earners drag the number up.
- Kentucky's $65,690 median for financial specialists, all other places it 44 of 50 states, about 19% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Financial specialists, all other ranks 146 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.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $52,780 after the full tax stack, from $65,690. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $58,341 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $75,010 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Financial Specialists, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $65,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $115,920 |
| This salary | $65,690 |
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 | $52,780 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,962 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,782 |
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 | $62,975 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,346 |
| 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 financial specialists, all other in Kentucky earn under $65,690 and half over. The published range runs $47,590 at the tenth percentile to $115,920 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kentucky's $52,780, worked from $65,690. 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 146 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $58,341 uses one figure for the whole of Kentucky. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 146.
- Figures are distribution medians for financial specialists, all other in Kentucky, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $47,590 to $115,920; 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.
- The Kentucky take-home of $52,780, on $65,690 for work ranking 146 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 146 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $58,341, worked from $65,690, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Kentucky address, on work sitting at 146 of 491 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 $75,010 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $47,590 and the top tenth $115,920 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $58,341.
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, $52,780 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 $75,010. 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 ($47,590) and the ninetieth ($115,920) 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 $58,341 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 $52,780 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.