Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$24,215
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$4,305
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,767
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
$28,520
Kept after tax
$24,215
Worth in national money
$26,767
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Kentucky. The middle earner gets $28,520. That is 38 of 51 states, and about 15.07% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Kentucky publishes, this job lands at 482. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Kentucky is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $28,520 the take-home is $24,215; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $26,767 would nationally. The average lands at $27,610, below the middle of the range.
- For lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $28,520, ranking 38 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 15.07%. 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 482 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.
- Post-tax income for lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers in Kentucky, on $28,520, is $24,215 — equivalent to $26,767 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $27,610 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $20,280 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $28,520 |
| Top tenth earn over | $33,250 |
| This salary | $28,520 |
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 | $24,215 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,096 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$941 |
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 | $27,450 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,138 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $28,520 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $20,280 and the ninetieth is $33,250 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $24,215 take-home in Kentucky comes from $28,520. 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 482 of 491.
- Two cautions on $26,767, the adjusted value of that $28,520 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 482 of 491 locally.
- The Kentucky median of $28,520 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $20,280 to $33,250. 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 $24,215, from $28,520, 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 482 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 51 for it.
- This $26,767 adjusted figure, worked from $28,520, 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 482 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 482 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 $27,610, 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?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $20,280 at the tenth percentile, $33,250 at the ninetieth.
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 $26,767.
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 $24,215 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $27,610. 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 ($20,280 to $33,250) 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 $26,767 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 $24,215 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.