Information Security Analysts in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$78,224
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$25,406
24.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$86,466
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
$103,630
Kept after tax
$78,224
Worth in national money
$86,466
State rank
35
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Kentucky pays this job a middle wage of $103,630, 35 of 48 states and about 19.78% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Kentucky. It ranks 35 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $103,630 you keep $78,224 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $86,466 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $108,310, since top earners drag the number up.
- Kentucky's $103,630 median for information security analysts places it 35 of 48 states, about 19.78% 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.
- Within Kentucky, information security analysts ranks 35 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $78,224 after the full tax stack, from $103,630. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $86,466 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $108,310 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Information Security Analysts
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $64,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $103,630 |
| Top tenth earn over | $157,810 |
| This salary | $103,630 |
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 | $78,224 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $81,734 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,356 |
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 | $98,641 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,255 |
| 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 information security analysts in Kentucky earn under $103,630 and half over. The published range runs $64,650 at the tenth percentile to $157,810 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $78,224 take-home in Kentucky comes from $103,630. 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 35 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $86,466 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 35.
- Figures are distribution medians for information security analysts in Kentucky, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $64,650 to $157,810; 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 $78,224, from $103,630, 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 35 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 48 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $86,466, worked from $103,630, 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 35 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 $108,310, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $64,650 and the top tenth $157,810 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Kentucky sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $86,466 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $78,224 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 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 $108,310. 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 ($64,650) and the ninetieth ($157,810) 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 $86,466 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 $78,224 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.