Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,545
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$11,935
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,765
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
$61,480
Kept after tax
$49,545
Worth in national money
$54,765
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Kentucky pays this job a middle wage of $61,480, 43 of 51 states and about 21.94% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 179 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Kentucky does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $61,480 you keep $49,545, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $54,765 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $70,220, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Kentucky's $61,480 median for market research analysts and marketing specialists places it 43 of 51 states, about 21.94% 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.
- Market research analysts and marketing specialists ranks 179 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.
- After federal, FICA and Kentucky income tax, retained pay for market research analysts and marketing specialists on $61,480 is $49,545. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $54,765 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $70,220 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,480 |
| Top tenth earn over | $103,300 |
| This salary | $61,480 |
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 | $49,545 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,579 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,687 |
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 | $58,948 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,040 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,480 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,970 and the ninetieth is $103,300 — 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 $49,545, worked from $61,480. 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 179 of 491.
- Two cautions on $54,765, the adjusted value of that $61,480 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 179 of 491 locally.
- The Kentucky median of $61,480 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,970 to $103,300. 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 $49,545, on $61,480 for work ranking 179 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 179 of 491 in the state.
- This $54,765 adjusted figure, worked from $61,480, 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 179 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 179 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 $70,220, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,970, the highest tenth $103,300, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $54,765 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 $49,545 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 $70,220. 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 ($37,970) and the ninetieth ($103,300) 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 $54,765 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 $49,545 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.