Printing Press Operators in Kansas

Machined metal parts and a CNC machine in a clean manufacturing workshop.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$33,790

after federal, FICA and Kansas tax

Tax takes

$8,100

19.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$37,559

Kansas costs less than average

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

$41,890

Kept after tax

$33,790

Worth in national money

$37,559

State rank

37

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • The nominal figure here is modest. Kansas pays printing press operators a middle wage of $41,890, 37 of 51 states and about 8.5% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
  • Within Kansas this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, printing press operators ranks 381. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $41,890 you keep $33,790 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $37,559 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $42,350, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Kansas's $41,890 median for printing press operators places it 37 of 51 states, about 8.5% 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.
  • Against every occupation Kansas reports, printing press operators ranks 381 of 488, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
  • Retained pay in Kansas is $33,790 after the full tax stack, from $41,890. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $37,559 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $42,350 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Printing Press Operators

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$27,980
Half earn under$41,890
Top tenth earn over$58,410
This salary$41,890

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

Compare with
+$2,049take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Kansas$33,790
Take-home in Texas$35,839
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$678

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

Moving to
$0$42,710
$42,710in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$39,340
Raise you would need+$820
Prices in Texas97 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 printing press operators in Kansas earn under $41,890 and half over. The published range runs $27,980 at the tenth percentile to $58,410 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • In Kansas the take-home figure of $33,790, from $41,890, 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 381 of 488 occupations here.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Kansas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,559, the adjusted value of that $41,890 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 381 of 488 in the state.
  • Figures are distribution medians for printing press operators in Kansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $27,980 to $58,410; 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.
  • Take-home for Kansas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $33,790 from $41,890. 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 381 of 488 locally.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kansas, so $37,559 — the adjusted value of that $41,890 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 381 of 488 locally.

Questions people ask

Why is the pay range for this job so wide?

One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $27,980, the highest tenth $58,410, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.

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 $37,559.

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 Kansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $33,790 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.

What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?

Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($27,980) and the ninetieth ($58,410) 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 $37,559 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 $33,790 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.

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.