Kentucky Paycheck Calculator
Which offer actually pays more

Compare Two Kentucky Job Offers

Kentucky taxes income at a flat 3.5%, so state tax never decides which of two offers wins. Local occupational tax does. It runs from 1.00% to about 3.15% once a county fee stacks on a city rate, which is enough to hand the win to the lower salary. Enter two or three offers below and compare them on what actually reaches your account.

Best forAnyone weighing offers in different Kentucky cities, where local occupational tax can swing net pay by thousands.
ComparesTake-home pay, local tax, 401(k) match & premiums
Local rates20 Kentucky cities, including the Northern Kentucky wage caps

Which Kentucky job offer pays more?

The one with the higher take-home pay, which is not always the one with the higher salary. Kentucky's 3.5% state tax is flat, so it scales with both offers equally and never changes the ranking. What does change it is the local occupational tax withheld where you work — 1.00% in the cheapest city on this list, and up to about 3.15% in the most expensive once a county fee stacks on top — along with the employer 401(k) match and your share of the health premium. On a $70,000 offer, a 2-point difference in local tax is worth roughly $1,400 a year, so any salary gap smaller than that can be wiped out by the address on the offer letter.

Compare your offers

Your offers

Enter the salary and the city each job is based in. Local occupational tax follows where you work, not where you live, so the city matters as much as the number.

What each offer is actually worth

Take-home pay is what lands in your account after federal tax, Kentucky’s 3.5% flat tax, FICA, local occupational tax and your own deductions. Total value adds the employer match on top.

Enter a salary for at least two offers to see the comparison.

What decides a Kentucky offer comparison

Kentucky's state income tax is flat at 3.5% for 2026, so it takes the same share of every offer. It can change how much each one is worth, but never which one is worth more.

Local occupational tax is the variable that flips outcomes. Madisonville withholds 2.50%, while some Kentucky cities levy nothing at all.

It follows where you work, not where you live, so accepting an offer across a county line changes your withholding even if you never move house. Louisville is the exception — part of its rate is a residents-only school boards fee.

Covington and Florence cap the wages their local tax applies to, and the county fees stacked on them cap far lower still. Above those thresholds each layer stops independently, which is why the comparison applies them one at a time instead of summing the rates.

An employer 401(k) match is often the biggest gap between two offers and the easiest to overlook, because it never appears in take-home pay. The comparison reports both figures rather than blending them.

Rate this calculator

How to compare two Kentucky offers, step by step

1Enter each offer's annual salary before any deductions — the number on the offer letter, not an hourly rate or a monthly figure.

2Pick the city where you would actually do the work for each one. That is what sets the local occupational tax, even if you would keep living somewhere else.

3Answer the residency question if it appears. It only shows up for jurisdictions that withhold a different rate from people who work there but live elsewhere, and getting it wrong overstates a commuter's tax.

4Add the employer 401(k) match percentage and your own contribution rate. The match is counted as total value rather than take-home, because it lands in a retirement account.

5Add your annual share of the health premium for each offer. It is treated as post-tax here, which is the conservative reading — pre-tax treatment would make the offer look slightly better.

6Read the take-home row for spendable pay and the total-value row for what the job is worth over a year, then print the comparison if you want it alongside the offer letters.

Common questions about comparing Kentucky job offers

Does a higher salary always mean more take-home pay in Kentucky?

No. Kentucky's state income tax is a flat 3.5%, so it never changes the ranking of two offers — but local occupational tax does. City and county rates run from nothing at all up to roughly 3.15% once a county fee stacks on top of the city rate, which is a wider spread than most people expect. A $2,000 salary difference is worth less than the tax difference between two cities more often than you would think, and a 401(k) match or a health premium can move it further.

Which city's occupational tax do I pay if I move for the job?

Almost always the city where you do the work, not the one you live in. Kentucky's occupational tax is levied on wages earned inside a jurisdiction's limits, so a commute across a county line changes your withholding even if you never change address. Louisville is the one exception in this comparison: 1.45% applies to everyone working in Metro, and a further 0.75% Jefferson County school boards fee is withheld only from residents, so working in Louisville while living elsewhere means 1.45% rather than 2.20%.

Why do the Northern Kentucky offers behave differently?

Covington and Florence both cap the wages their tax applies to, and the county fees layered on top of them cap at different, much lower amounts. Boone County's occupational fee stops at $79,494 of wages and its senior citizen and mental health fee stops at $16,666, while Florence's own rate runs to $184,500. Above those thresholds each layer simply stops, so a high salary in Northern Kentucky keeps a larger share of every extra dollar than the headline rates suggest. The comparison applies each cap separately rather than adding the rates together, because adding them would overstate the tax on anyone earning more than $79,494.

Should I count the employer 401(k) match as part of the offer?

Yes, but keep it separate from take-home pay, which is what this comparison does. The match is real compensation and it is often the single largest difference between two offers, but it lands in a retirement account rather than your bank account and it is usually subject to a vesting schedule. Read the take-home row for what you can spend this month and the total-value row for what the job is worth over a year.

What is not included in this comparison?

Commuting cost, cost of living, paid time off, equity, bonus targets and any signing payment. Those are real and can be decisive, but they vary too much by person and by employer to model honestly from a salary figure. The comparison covers the part that is arithmetic — federal withholding, Kentucky's flat tax, FICA, local occupational tax, your own 401(k) contribution, your health premium share and the employer match — and leaves the judgement calls to you.

Are these figures exact enough to negotiate with?

They are close enough to rank two offers and to know roughly what a gap is worth, which is what negotiation needs. They are estimates, not payroll output: they assume a full year at the stated salary, standard federal withholding with no dependents or other-income adjustments, and the local rate on file for each city. Your actual paycheck will differ once mid-year start dates, pre-tax benefit elections beyond the two here, and any employer-specific withholding are applied.

Related Kentucky payroll pages

Kentucky Occupational Tax Rates 2026The city and county rates behind this comparison, each with the authority that levies it and the date we verified it.Kentucky Local Occupational Tax CalculatorWork out the local tax on one salary in one city, including stacked county fees and wage caps.Kentucky Salary After TaxesWhat a single salary leaves you with after federal, state, FICA and local tax.Kentucky 401(k) Paycheck CalculatorHow changing your contribution rate moves both your take-home pay and your tax.