Order Clerks in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,514
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$7,106
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,045
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
$40,620
Kept after tax
$33,514
Worth in national money
$37,045
State rank
42
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for order clerks is on the low side in Kentucky. The middle earner gets $40,620. That is 42 of 48 states, and about 12.02% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Kentucky publishes, order clerks lands at 379. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Kentucky does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $40,620 you keep $33,514, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $37,045 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $41,910, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For order clerks, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $40,620, ranking 42 of 48 and trailing the national median by about 12.02%. 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 379 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.
- After federal, FICA and Kentucky income tax, retained pay for order clerks on $40,620 is $33,514. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $37,045 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 $41,910 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Order Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,620 |
| Top tenth earn over | $52,100 |
| This salary | $40,620 |
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 | $33,514 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,818 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,215 |
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 | $38,997 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,469 |
| 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 order clerks in Kentucky earn under $40,620 and half over. The published range runs $32,710 at the tenth percentile to $52,100 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kentucky's $33,514, worked from $40,620. 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 379 of 491.
- Two cautions on $37,045, the adjusted value of that $40,620 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 379 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for order clerks in Kentucky, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $32,710 to $52,100; 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.
- The Kentucky take-home of $33,514, on $40,620 for work ranking 379 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 379 of 491 in the state.
- This $37,045 adjusted figure, worked from $40,620, 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 379 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 379 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $41,910 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $32,710 at the bottom tenth to $52,100 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $37,045.
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, $33,514 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 48 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $41,910. 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 ($32,710 to $52,100) 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 $37,045 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 $33,514 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.