2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Waiters and Waitresses

Paducah, KY-IL metropolitan area. Estimated employment 1,010.

Data released May 2025 BLS OEWS · SOC 35-3031
Fig. 1 — The wage rule

Where you sit in the distribution

Drag the marker, or type a figure
$29,280 · 50th
$15,97010th
$16,51025th
$29,28050th
$39,14075th
$57,81090th

That is the medianhalf of waiters and waitresses in Paducah earn more.

Table 1 — Adjusted

$29,280 in Paducah buys what $34,000 buys across the country as a whole.

Paducah's regional price parity is 86.1 — well below the national average — the nominal figure understates local buying power considerably. Adjusted figures for other metros are in the nearby-metros table below.

Table 2 — Nearby metros

The same job, elsewhere in Kentucky

Adjusted figures apply each metro's regional price parity, so the columns are directly comparable.

Metro areaMedianAdjustedRPPvs. Paducah
Lexington$34,910$37,60092.9+10.5%
Elizabethtown$30,270$33,40090.6−1.7%
Louisville$30,180$32,40093.1−4.7%
Owensboro$29,790$33,60088.6−1.2%
Paducah This page$29,280$34,00086.1
Bowling Green$28,810$31,90090.2−6.1%

Price parity and difference against Paducah are in the full table on wider screens.

Sources

How this page was made

Wage data
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
Price parity
Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
Employment
1,010 employed in this occupation in the metro (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
Occupation
SOC 35-3031, Waiters and Waitresses. Mapped to our taxonomy as waiters-and-waitresses.

Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.