Moving between states / Kansas

AlaskatoKansas, Electrician

Moving from Alaska to Kansas as a journeyman electrician

What a journeyman electrician licensed in Alaska has to do to work in Kansas, what the move does to your pay, and who in Kansas is hiring from out of state.

Licensed by the city. Kansas has no state electrician licence; the City and county building departments decide what card you need, and it can differ between cities. No state electrician licence; Wichita, Topeka, Kansas City and most counties license locally and many reciprocate with each other. Ask the contractor hiring you which municipality the first job is in and apply to that one. Your Alaska state licence is evidence of hours, not a licence there.

What the move does to your paycheck

On a $60,000 salary Kansas takes roughly $2,344 a year more than Alaska does, because you are leaving a state with no income tax on wages.

Rough figures for a single filer: exact in the flat-rate and no-tax states, approximated at 70% of the top bracket in the progressive ones. Property and sales tax are not in it.

CNA: Alaska to Kansas

Transfers by reciprocity. Your Alaska certificate stays on the Alaska Board of Nursing (Certified Nurse Aide program); to work in Kansas you apply to the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, Nurse Aide Registry for reciprocity. It accepts an active certificate in good standing from another state; there is no retest if your record is clean. Most registries list you within two to six weeks.

RN and LPN: Alaska to Kansas

Endorsement, six to twelve weeks. Alaska is not in the compact, so your Alaska licence is single-state. Apply to the Kansas board for licensure by endorsement (Nursys verification, fingerprints, the board's fee); six to twelve weeks is normal, so start before you give notice. Because Kansas is a compact state, ask for the new licence to be issued as a multistate licence: from then on it works in every compact state.

CDL: Alaska to Kansas

Transfers at the DMV. A commercial driver's licence transfers like any licence: within 30 days of becoming a Kansas resident you surrender the Alaska CDL at a Kansas driver licence office, pass the vision test, pay the fee, and your endorsements carry over. A hazmat endorsement needs a fresh TSA threat assessment in Kansas. Your driving record follows you through the federal CDLIS system.

Does Kansas pay you to come?

• 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.
• 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.

Going the other way? Alaska has Permanent Fund Dividend. See moving from Kansas to Alaska.

Openings filed in Kansas

67 open positions filed with the Department of Labor by Kansas employers who could not fill them locally.

• Bilingual Pharmacy Technician - Spanish (Call Center)McKesson · Overland Park
• Pharmacy Technician (Call Center)McKesson · Overland Park
• Ag Equipment OperatorJohn Young Trust · Burrton · $19.71/hr
• Agricultural Equipment OperatorN and A Farms · Atwood · $15.18/hr
• Farm WorkerFrank L Wedel · Wallace · $15.18/hr
• Relationship BankerBank of America · Overland Park

Same move, by trade

CNA: Alaska to Kansas · RN or LPN: Alaska to Kansas · Truck driver: Alaska to Kansas · All licences: Alaska to Kansas

From Alaska to the states next to Kansas

Nebraska (progressive, top rate 5.2%) · Missouri (progressive, top rate 4.7%) · Oklahoma (progressive, top rate 4.75%) · Colorado (flat 4.4% state income tax)

To Kansas from the states next to Alaska

Everything about working in Kansas · All moves between states · All 50 states