Transportation Security Screeners in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,813
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$12,317
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,167
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
$63,130
Kept after tax
$50,813
Worth in national money
$56,167
State rank
28
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Kentucky is 28 of 45 states for this job, with a middle wage of $63,130. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 168 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 $63,130 you keep $50,813 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $56,167 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $60,390.
- Kentucky ranks 28 of 45 for transportation security screeners at $63,130. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Transportation security screeners ranks 168 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 $50,813 after the full tax stack, from $63,130. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $56,167 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $60,390 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Transportation Security Screeners
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,010 |
| This salary | $63,130 |
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 | $50,813 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,905 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,724 |
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 | $60,526 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,085 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,130 as a midpoint for Kentucky, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,530 and the ninetieth is $70,010 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $50,813 take-home in Kentucky comes from $63,130. 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 168 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $56,167 uses one figure for the whole of Kentucky. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 168.
- The Kentucky median of $63,130 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,530 to $70,010. 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 $50,813, from $63,130, 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 168 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 28 of 45 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $56,167, worked from $63,130, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Kentucky address, on work sitting at 168 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 $60,390 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $47,530 and the top tenth $70,010, so most people doing this work in Kentucky sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $56,167 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 Kentucky's own levy, $50,813 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $60,390. 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 ($47,530 to $70,010) 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 $56,167 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 $50,813 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.