Owensboro, KY Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 88.6) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Owensboro, KY moved from $42,740 in May 2024 to $44,960 in May 2025 (+5.2%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Owensboro, KY sits +2.1 pp ahead of that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 36980 · Owensboro, KY $52K mean
MEAN-TRACE · RPP-LOW · OCC-THIN · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-AHEAD · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-MOST
- MEAN-TRACE #449/528
- RPP-LOW 88.6
- OCC-THIN 197 occs
- TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $401K
- EMP-MIX Financial Ma…
- TREND-AHEAD +2.1 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Terre Haute, IN
- BOOK-MOST 196 rows · May 2025
Read with Terre Haute, IN ($25 on published-row mean) · Salary vs. cost of living
Instrument codes from this MSA’s OEWS published-row mean, BEA RPP, occupation book, employment lead, All Occupations pay change, and nearest peer — not a moving recommendation.
Published-row mean neighbourhood around Owensboro, KY
Where Owensboro, KY already employs the upper wage tier
Financial Managers and Nurse Practitioners lead published employment inside Owensboro, KY's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Financial Managers 180 jobs · $107,190
- 2. Nurse Practitioners 150 jobs · $128,780
- 3. Medical and Health Services Managers 150 jobs · $104,370
- 4. Physicians, All Other 140 jobs · $401,180
- 5. Sales Managers 140 jobs · $119,320
- 6. Industrial Production Managers 140 jobs · $109,400
- 7. Pharmacists 120 jobs · $139,950
- 8. Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 110 jobs · $105,090
- 9. Lawyers 110 jobs · $97,620
- 10. Software Developers 90 jobs · $102,010
- 11. Industrial Engineers 90 jobs · $93,080
- 12. Construction Managers 80 jobs · $91,550
- 13. Administrative Services Managers 60 jobs · $121,020
- 14. Occupational Therapists 60 jobs · $95,740
- 15. Chief Executives 50 jobs · $171,540
- 16. Architectural and Engineering Managers 50 jobs · $129,430
- 17. Mechanical Engineers 50 jobs · $97,810
- 18. Network and Computer Systems Administrators 50 jobs · $94,060
Occupations Tracked
197
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$51,652
employment-weighted, 196 complete rows
Top Salary
$401,180
Physicians, All Other
Cost of Living
88.6
11% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Owensboro, KY, by employment
Same top-pay sample as the salary ranking, sorted by published local jobs so the title sequence follows the OEWS mix.
| # | Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Financial Managers | $107,190 |
| 2 | Nurse Practitioners | $128,780 |
| 3 | Medical and Health Services Managers | $104,370 |
| 4 | Physicians, All Other | $401,180 |
| 5 | Sales Managers | $119,320 |
| 6 | Industrial Production Managers | $109,400 |
| 7 | Pharmacists | $139,950 |
| 8 | Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary | $105,090 |
| 9 | Lawyers | $97,620 |
| 10 | Software Developers | $102,010 |
| 11 | Industrial Engineers | $93,080 |
| 12 | Construction Managers | $91,550 |
| 13 | Administrative Services Managers | $121,020 |
| 14 | Occupational Therapists | $95,740 |
| 15 | Chief Executives | $171,540 |
| 16 | Architectural and Engineering Managers | $129,430 |
| 17 | Mechanical Engineers | $97,810 |
| 18 | Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $94,060 |
| 19 | Computer and Information Systems Managers | $138,480 |
| 20 | Managers, All Other | $127,170 |
| 21 | Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers | $110,320 |
| 22 | Family Medicine Physicians | $224,740 |
| 23 | Human Resources Managers | $132,760 |
| 24 | Marketing Managers | $124,040 |
| 25 | Facilities Managers | $102,180 |
Lowest Paying Jobs in Owensboro, KY
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Residential Advisors | $18,370 |
| Cooks, Fast Food | $22,260 |
| Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers | $23,350 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $24,050 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $24,690 |
| Sewing Machine Operators | $25,980 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $26,750 |
| Bartenders | $26,810 |
| Recreation Workers | $27,000 |
| Food Preparation Workers | $27,130 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in KY
Other metropolitan or nonmetropolitan OEWS areas assigned to the same state. Cross-state pay and employment peers live in Nationwide similar metros below.
Nationwide metros with similar published-row mean pay or employment scale
Two OEWS peer sets outside KY. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($51,652 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on BLS OEWS employment-weighted published-row mean wage and summed occupation employment. Employment peers exclude metros already listed in the mean-wage column so the two link sets stay distinct. Mean wage here is not a worker-level median.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Related federal data
Source data and WageDex calculations are identified in context on this page. Occupation rows use BLS OEWS May 2025. The metro benchmark is WageDex's employment-weighted mean of published occupation means; where BEA RPP is available, the price-level figure divides that benchmark by the published area parity. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.