Manufacturing in Kansas: licence, certification and what employers require (2026)

Kansas does not license production workers: no licence. This page says what a production worker licensed or working in another state has to do to work in Kansas, in the order to do it, and what goes wrong when the order is reversed.

How the transfer works

Production work is not licensed. Certifications that travel: forklift (retrained by the employer anyway), OSHA cards, and process certificates such as IPC soldering or ISO auditor training. Nothing to file in Kansas.

What to have ready before you move

• Certificates
• A list of equipment and processes

Start the paperwork before you give notice. There is no Kansas licence to wait for, so the only clock is the employer's.

What people get wrong

• Comparing base pay without shift differentials

Who hires production workers in Kansas

Production workers in Kansas are hired by manufacturers of every kind; the largest hiring is near new plants. The metros with the most of that work are Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City and Topeka. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are on the Kansas openings page.

For the money side: the median production worker in Kansas earned $41,280 a year ($20 an hour) in May 2024 across 13,330 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Kansas has a progressive state income tax with a top rate of 5.58%. What that leaves you after tax is its own page.

Kansas also has programs that pay people to move in: Choose Topeka (up to $15,000, for people who take a job in Shawnee County or move there as remote workers; the employer matches part of it) and Rural Opportunity Zones (student loan repayment up to $15,000 over five years, plus an income tax waiver in some counties, for graduates moving to one of the designated rural counties). Each has a residence condition and a funding round.

Everything about Kansas, on one page

The Kansas page has the registries and boards, the income tax table, the programs that pay you to come and the openings filed this month. If you know which state you are leaving, the move pages compare the two directly. Creating a free Workmerica profile with your trade and your destination puts you in front of Kansas employers hiring from out of state.