Firefighter salary in Kentucky: $37,150 median.
Pay for firefighters across Kentucky at every point of the range, against the U.S., the states it borders and the state's metro areas.
Firefighters in Kentucky earned a median annual wage of $37,150 in May 2025, compared with $59,280 nationally, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey (SOC 33-2011). That is 37% below the U.S. median; the middle half of Kentucky workers in this occupation earned between $33,390 and $48,120.
- Kentucky median
- $37,150
- $17.86 an hour
- U.S. median
- $59,280
- -37% in Kentucky
- Rank among states
- 48 of 50
- states with a published median
- Employed in Kentucky
- 5,150
- location quotient 1.16
Advice For a pay conversation in Kentucky, the state median ($37,150) is the sourced middle of the market; the 25th–75th percentile band ($33,390–$48,120) is where half of the state's workers in this occupation fall. Experience, employer, metro and specialty move individual offers within and beyond that band.
Kentucky vs the U.S. at every point of the range
Data Annual wages at five points of the pay distribution, SOC 33-2011, BLS May 2025.
| Point in the pay range | Kentucky | United States | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $27,870 | $34,910 | -20% |
| 25th percentile | $33,390 | $44,490 | -25% |
| Median | $37,150 | $59,280 | -37% |
| 75th percentile | $48,120 | $77,250 | -38% |
| 90th percentile | $60,720 | $101,040 | -40% |
Data The local difference is larger at the top of the range than at the bottom (-20% at the 10th percentile, -40% at the 90th). Locally, the 90th-percentile wage is 2.18 times the 10th-percentile wage, versus 2.89 times nationally, so pay is less spread out than it is nationally.
How common the job is in Kentucky
Data BLS location quotient: the occupation's share of state employment divided by its share of U.S. employment.
Data The BLS location quotient for this occupation in Kentucky is 1.16, so it is close to the national concentration (1.00 = the same share as nationally). That is about 2.6 jobs per 1,000 jobs in the state.
Kentucky vs the states it borders
Data Same occupation, same BLS release. A higher median elsewhere is not a job offer; cost of living differs.
Where in Kentucky it pays most
Data Metropolitan statistical areas that include part of the state and pass TryHired's reliability rule (500+ jobs, employment PRSE ≤ 20%, mean-wage PRSE ≤ 10%, a published median and a non-degenerate wage distribution). Each is the whole BLS metro area, not a city.
Where firefighters earn the highest medians
Data Highest state medians among the 50 of the 50 states and DC with a published median, BLS May 2025. Kentucky ranks 48.
See every state on the national Firefighter salary page.
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How this page is built
BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimates for Kentucky and national estimates for SOC 33-2011 (Firefighters). The pay ladder compares the same five published percentiles; the difference column is the local value minus the U.S. value, divided by the U.S. value. Ranks compare published state medians across the 50 states and DC. Employment counts people working in the occupation (excluding the self-employed), not job openings. BLS publishes sampling error for these estimates: the employment estimate has a relative standard error of 11.5%. Lower is more precise; BLS does not publish a standard error for the median itself. Searches this page answers include “how much do firefighters make in kentucky”, “firefighter salary kentucky”, “firefighter salary in kentucky” (Ahrefs, U.S.).
- Cost of living: wages are not adjusted for local prices.
- Pay at a specific employer, in one city, or for self-employed workers.
- Local outlook: BLS projections are national.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 state and national estimates (2018 SOC), public domain.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
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