Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,836
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$9,914
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,349
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
$52,750
Kept after tax
$42,836
Worth in national money
$47,349
State rank
48
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Kentucky. The middle earner gets $52,750. That is 48 of 51 states, and about 24.63% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 259 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $52,750 you keep $42,836 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $47,349 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $66,190, since top earners drag the number up.
- For sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel, Kentucky sits in the lower band at $52,750, ranking 48 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 24.63%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel ranks 259 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.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $42,836 after the full tax stack, from $52,750. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $47,349 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $66,190 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,750 |
| Top tenth earn over | $116,880 |
| This salary | $52,750 |
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 | $42,836 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,565 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,489 |
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 | $50,599 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,801 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $52,750 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,120 and the ninetieth is $116,880 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Kentucky the take-home figure of $42,836, from $52,750, 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 259 of 491 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kentucky, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $47,349, the adjusted value of that $52,750 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 259 of 491 in the state.
- The Kentucky median of $52,750 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,120 to $116,880. 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 Kentucky is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $42,836 from $52,750. 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 259 of 491 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kentucky, so $47,349 — the adjusted value of that $52,750 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 259 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 $66,190 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $33,120, the highest tenth $116,880, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Kentucky is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $47,349 in national terms.
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 $42,836 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 $66,190. 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 ($33,120) and the ninetieth ($116,880) 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 $47,349 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 $42,836 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.