Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$80,985
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$26,775
24.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$89,518
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
$107,760
Kept after tax
$80,985
Worth in national money
$89,518
State rank
19
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Kentucky sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $107,760, ranking 19 of 45 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Within Kentucky this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 31 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $107,760 you keep $80,985 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $89,518 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $114,380, since top earners drag the number up.
- Kentucky occupies the middle band for health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors: a median of $107,760, ranking 19 of 45. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Ranked against every occupation Kentucky publishes a median for, health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors sits 31 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $80,985 after the full tax stack, from $107,760. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $89,518 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $114,380 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $72,780 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $107,760 |
| Top tenth earn over | $173,470 |
| This salary | $107,760 |
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 | $80,985 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $84,639 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,418 |
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 | $102,566 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,340 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Kentucky earn less than $107,760. The published range is $72,780 up to $173,470, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kentucky's $80,985, worked from $107,760. 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 31 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kentucky, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $89,518, the adjusted value of that $107,760 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 31 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors in Kentucky the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $72,780 to $173,470. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Kentucky take-home of $80,985, on $107,760 for work ranking 31 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 31 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kentucky, so $89,518 — the adjusted value of that $107,760 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 31 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 $114,380, 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 $72,780 and the top tenth $173,470 — 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 $89,518.
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, $80,985 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $114,380. 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 ($72,780) and the ninetieth ($173,470) 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 $89,518 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 $80,985 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.