Chef pay in Kentucky after taxes: what you keep (2026)

The median cook in Kentucky earned $30,960 a year in May 2024, which is $15 an hour for a full-time year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Half of the 14,400 cooks the BLS counts in Kentucky earned more than that and half earned less; the middle half of them sat between $28,400 and $36,380. That is the gross figure, before anyone takes anything. What you keep depends on Kentucky's tax, and Kentucky has a flat 4% state income tax.

What the median cook keeps in Kentucky

For a single filer on the median $30,960, taking the standard deduction and no other adjustments:

The state line is 4.0% of gross at this salary. Many cities and counties add an occupational tax, which is not in the table. Health insurance, retirement contributions and local taxes are not in it either; they vary by employer and by city.

Where Kentucky ranks for cook pay

Of the 50 states, Kentucky ranks 44 of 50 on the gross median for cooks, in the bottom ten. The highest-paying state is Massachusetts at $46,280 and the lowest is West Virginia at $28,560. Gross rank is not take-home rank: a state with no income tax climbs several places once the state line is applied, and a high-tax state drops.

Across the border

The same job in the states next to Kentucky, gross median and estimated take-home for a single filer:

Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio leave a cook with more at the end of the year than Kentucky does; Tennessee by about $5,135. West Virginia pays less once tax is counted. Pay is one line; rent is the other, and a higher median in a metro with higher rent can leave you with less.

Where the cook jobs are in Kentucky

The BLS count of 14,400 cooks is statewide. The metros with the most of that work are Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green, which is where the median is set and where the upper quartile ($36,380 and above) is most often paid. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are listed on the Kentucky openings page; those filings are the ones already paying to bring people in, and housing or transport is often part of the offer.

What people get wrong about cook pay in Kentucky

• Quoting the mean. The BLS mean for Kentucky is $16 an hour, pulled up by the top earners. The median ($15) is what the typical cook makes.
• Comparing gross across states. A $30,960 offer in Kentucky is $25,623 in hand; the same number in a no-tax state is $26,861.
• Forgetting the employer's share of insurance. A job that pays $28,960 with full health coverage can beat one that pays $33,960 without it.
• Treating the statewide median as the metro median. Louisville pays differently from a rural county; ask for the figure for the place you are actually going.

Everything about Kentucky, on one page

The Kentucky page has the licence registries and boards, the state tax at three salaries, the programs that pay you to come, and the openings filed in Kentucky 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 Kentucky employers hiring from out of state.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 state estimates for Chef. Tax lines are a single filer with the standard deduction, 2024 federal brackets, and the state rate in lib/us-states.ts; progressive states are approximated. Not tax advice.