What Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators earn in Barren County, KY
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $39,690: the median annual pay for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators in Barren County, KY. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $19.08 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole South Central Kentucky nonmetropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $41,370, which is 4.2% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 5,080 people working in this occupation across the South Central Kentucky nonmetropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Barren County, KY has roughly 44,938 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators in the South Central Kentucky nonmetropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $30,740 a year ($14.78 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $50,580 or more ($24.32 an hour). That is a gap of $19,840 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $35,460 at the 25th percentile and $48,290 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.6 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $19.08 an hour or $39,690 a year at the median for Barren County, KY. Before any deductions, that is $3,308 a month, $1,527 every two weeks and $763 each week. After taxes the same job pays $15.66 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Team Assemblers this way: "Work as part of a team having responsibility for assembling an entire product or component of a product. Team assemblers can perform all tasks conducted by the team in the assembly process and rotate through all or most of them, rather than being assigned to a specific task on a permanent basis. May participate in making management decisions affecting the work. Includes team leaders who work as part of the team."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Rotate through all the tasks required in a particular production process"; "Determine work assignments and procedures"; "Perform quality checks on products and parts"; "Shovel, sweep, or otherwise clean work areas".
This BLS pay category covers several related O*NET occupations, among them Team Assemblers, Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other, so the wage figures describe the group as a whole.
Job outlook for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 1,403,500 jobs in 2025 to 1,418,400 in 2035, a change of +1.1%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 138,700 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 9.9% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: moderate-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $44,650 for this occupation; the Barren County, KY median of $39,690 is 11.1% below it.
How pay in Barren County, KY compares
Compared with the Kentucky average
Pay in Barren County, KY runs $7,598 below the Kentucky average of $47,288, a gap of 16.1%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Kentucky would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Kentucky, the highest median we track for this job is $59,730 in Fayette County, KY.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators is $44,643 across the contiguous United States. At $39,690, Barren County, KY pays $4,953 less, which is 11.1% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Barren County, KY
Among the 339 occupations with published wages in Barren County, KY, Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators ranks number 239 by median pay, ahead of about 30% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Stockers and Order Fillers at $35,710 a year, which is $3,980 less than the median for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators earning the Barren County, KY median of $39,690, they add up to $7,127. The result is $32,563 of take-home pay a year ($2,714 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $18 goes to taxes and $82 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 18.0%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $23,940. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $2,634, an effective 6.6% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,461 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $576. FICA totals $3,036, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Kentucky
Kentucky income tax on this salary is $1,457 a year, or 3.7% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 55% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $121 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Barren County, KY
IRS Statistics of Income data for Barren County, KY show an average adjusted gross income of $60,199 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 9.8% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.5%, compared with the 6.6% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Barren County, KY
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Barren County, KY: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $32,563 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Barren County, KY, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $700 a month ($8,400 a year), and at $916 for two bedrooms. For Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators, a one-bedroom absorbs 25.8% of take-home pay and 21.2% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 8.7% of gross pay for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators in Barren County, KY. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Kentucky residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,351 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $524, for $1,874 in total. Gasoline in Kentucky averages $3.18 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,470.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $15,180 a year in Barren County, KY. Subtract that from $32,563 of take-home pay and $17,383 remains, which is $1,449 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 43.8% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Barren County, KY
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Barren County, KY: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Barren County, KY, set beside the Kentucky and national medians.
Property taxes in Barren County, KY
Homeowners in Barren County, KY pay a median of $1,212 a year in real estate taxes, 22% below the Kentucky median of $1,544 and 61% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $178,000, the median tax bill is 0.68% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators median of $39,690, a tax bill of that size would equal 3.1% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Barren County, KY
Renters in Barren County, KY pay a median gross rent of $796 a month in the Census survey, 18% below the Kentucky median of $967. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $700 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $178,000, 13% below the Kentucky median of $205,600. Median household income is $50,628, 21% below the Kentucky median of $63,726, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 16.6% of that income.
Commuting in Barren County, KY
Workers in Barren County, KY who travel to a workplace spend an average of 23.4 minutes each way, 3% below the Kentucky average of 24.0. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 3.9 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 7.3% of workers in Barren County, KY work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators afford to live in Barren County, KY?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $39,690 that ceiling is $992 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $700 is $292 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $13.46 an hour; the median for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators is $19.08, which is 42% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $15.66 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 10.3 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $916 a month means $458 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $2,904 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $20,287.
How fast you can save
At $1,449 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 7 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 14 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators pay in Barren County, KY
How much do Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators make per hour in Barren County, KY?
The median is $19.08 per hour, based on $39,690 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $14.78 at the 10th percentile to $24.32 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators take home after taxes in Barren County, KY?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $39,690 becomes $32,563 a year. That is $2,714 a month, $1,252 every two weeks or $626 a week.
How much tax do Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators pay in Barren County, KY?
Total taxes are $7,127 a year, an effective rate of 18.0%: $2,634 federal income tax, $3,036 FICA and $1,457 Kentucky income tax.
Do Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators earn more in Barren County, KY than elsewhere in Kentucky?
No. The local median of $39,690 is -16.1% versus the Kentucky average of $47,288, a difference of $7,598 a year.
Can Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators afford a one-bedroom apartment in Barren County, KY?
A one-bedroom costs $700 a month against take-home pay of $2,714, which is 25.8% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $992 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators in Barren County, KY?
About $1,449 a month ($17,383 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $15,180 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Barren County, KY at the 30% guideline?
$13.46 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $8,400 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators is $19.08.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the South Central Kentucky nonmetropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Kentucky rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.