Postal Service Mail Carriers in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,570
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$11,340
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,582
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
$58,910
Kept after tax
$47,570
Worth in national money
$52,582
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for postal service mail carriers is on the low side in Kentucky. The middle earner gets $58,910. That is 42 of 51 states, and about 2.71% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 226 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Kentucky is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $58,910 the take-home is $47,570; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $52,582 would nationally. The average comes to $61,200, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For postal service mail carriers, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $58,910, ranking 42 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 2.71%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Postal service mail carriers ranks 226 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.
- Post-tax income for postal service mail carriers in Kentucky, on $58,910, is $47,570 — equivalent to $52,582 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 $61,200 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Postal Service Mail Carriers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,390 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,040 |
| This salary | $58,910 |
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 | $47,570 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,514 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,628 |
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 | $56,490 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,969 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,910 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,390 and the ninetieth is $81,040 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $47,570 take-home in Kentucky comes from $58,910. 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 226 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kentucky, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $52,582, the adjusted value of that $58,910 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 226 of 491 in the state.
- The Kentucky median of $58,910 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,390 to $81,040. 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 $47,570, from $58,910, 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 226 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kentucky, so $52,582 — the adjusted value of that $58,910 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 226 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 $61,200, 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 — $42,390 at the tenth percentile, $81,040 at the ninetieth.
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 $52,582 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Kentucky then takes its own share, leaving $47,570.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $61,200. 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 ($42,390 to $81,040) 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 $52,582 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 $47,570 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.