Materials Engineers in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$73,889
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$26,111
26.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$82,130
Kansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kansas — 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
$100,000
Kept after tax
$73,889
Worth in national money
$82,130
State rank
31
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Kansas is among the lower-paying states for materials engineers. The middle earner takes $100,000, ranking 31 of 45 states — about 11.39% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Kansas. It ranks 54 out of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $100,000 you keep $73,889 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $82,130 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $116,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- Kansas ranks 31 of 45 for materials engineers, with a median of $100,000 — about 11.39% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Within Kansas, materials engineers ranks 54 of 488 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 Kansas is $73,889 after the full tax stack, from $100,000. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $82,130 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $116,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Materials Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $83,460 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $100,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $164,110 |
| This salary | $100,000 |
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 Kansas | $73,889 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,180 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$648 |
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 | $92,478 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$896 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $100,000 as a midpoint for Kansas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $83,460 and the ninetieth is $164,110 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Kansas the take-home figure of $73,889, from $100,000, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 54 of 488 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $82,130, the adjusted value of that $100,000 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Kansas. 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 54 of 488 locally.
- The Kansas median of $100,000 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $83,460 to $164,110. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Kansas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $73,889 from $100,000. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 54 of 488 locally.
- This $82,130 adjusted figure, worked from $100,000, 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 54 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 54 of 488 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 $116,270, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $83,460, the highest tenth $164,110, 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 Kansas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $82,130 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Kansas's own levy, $73,889 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 Kansas is $116,270. 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 ($83,460) and the ninetieth ($164,110) 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?
Kansas'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 $82,130 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 $73,889 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kansas 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.