Waiters and Waitresses in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,091
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$4,569
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,735
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
$29,660
Kept after tax
$25,091
Worth in national money
$27,735
State rank
33
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Kentucky pays waiters and waitresses around $29,660 at the midpoint, 33 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Kentucky publishes, waiters and waitresses lands at 472. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $29,660 you keep $25,091 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $27,735 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $35,410, since top earners drag the number up.
- For waiters and waitresses the Kentucky median is $29,660, ranking 33 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Kentucky, this work ranks 472 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.
- Retained pay in Kentucky is $25,091 after the full tax stack, from $29,660. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $27,735 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $35,410 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Waiters and Waitresses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $16,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,660 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,030 |
| This salary | $29,660 |
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 | $25,091 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $26,012 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$967 |
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 | $28,514 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,170 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Kentucky earn less than $29,660. The published range is $16,520 up to $62,030, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $25,091 take-home in Kentucky comes from $29,660. 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 472 of 491.
- Two cautions on $27,735, the adjusted value of that $29,660 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 472 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for waiters and waitresses in Kentucky the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $16,520 to $62,030. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $25,091, from $29,660, 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 472 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 33 of 51 for it.
- This $27,735 adjusted figure, worked from $29,660, 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 472 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 472 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 $35,410 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $16,520 and the top tenth $62,030 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $27,735 in national terms.
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, $25,091 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $35,410. 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 ($16,520) and the ninetieth ($62,030) 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 $27,735 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 $25,091 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.