Labor rates by state · KY
Auto repair labor rates in Kentucky
Shops in Kentucky typically post between $58 and $81 an hour, centring on about $69. That is built from the state's real mean technician wage of $23.07, which ranks 49 of 51 nationally.
Updated August 2026 · Source: BLS OES 49-3023, May 2025 release
What shops in Kentucky actually pay technicians
A single average hides the thing that decides your labor cost: the gap between what an entry-level technician earns and what a master technician earns. In Kentucky that gap runs from $14.53 to $35.54 an hour — the top of the trade earns about 2.4× the bottom. Every figure in this section is surveyed by the BLS, not derived.
The mean ($23.07) sits above the median ($21.58), which is the normal shape for this trade: a relatively small number of master technicians, diagnosticians and specialists pull the average up above what the middle of the workforce actually earns. If you are budgeting for a typical hire, the median is the more honest starting point. Kentucky employs 11,140 technicians, 5.57 for every 1,000 jobs in the state — a concentration noticeably more concentrated than the country as a whole, with a BLS location quotient of 1.23.
What is going on in the Kentucky market
At $23.07 an hour, Kentucky has one of the lowest technician wages in the country, producing a derived rate near $69, roughly $12 under the national figure. That sits oddly beside the state's substantial vehicle manufacturing presence, which does pay well. The effect is a wide internal spread, where a Louisville or Lexington shop competing against plant wages pays far more than the state mean implies.
How Kentucky compares to the states next door
Bordering states are the comparison that actually bites: they are where your customers cross for a cheaper quote, and where your technicians look when they want a raise.
How the Kentucky figure was produced
The wage numbers are real and surveyed. The mean of $23.07, the median of $21.58, the $14.53–$35.54 percentile range, the 11,140 technicians and the 1.23 location quotient all come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, occupation code 49-3023, "Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics", May 2025 release. They are not estimates and we do not adjust them.
The door rate is derived, not surveyed. No public survey of posted shop labor rates exists for Kentucky or anywhere else. We apply the long-standing industry rule of thumb that a shop's posted rate runs about 3× what it pays the technician, because the rate has to carry payroll taxes and benefits, the building, equipment and tooling, software, insurance, service-writer and administrative time, and profit. The 2.5× and 3.5× brackets give the $58–$81 range. We publish the multipliers instead of hiding them, so you can recompute from the BLS wage if you would use a different one.
What it cannot tell you. A state average cannot see your rent, your technician mix, or whether you are competing against two independents or a dealer group. Variation inside a state is regularly wider than the gap between two states. Treat $69 as orientation, and read the full state-by-state table for context.
Posting $69 does not mean collecting it
What you post per hour and what you actually collect per hour are different numbers, and the gap is discounting, comebacks and time nobody billed. MyAutoShopPro reports your effective labor rate from work you actually invoiced, per technician and per job type, so you can find the leak before you decide whether Kentucky rates justify a rise.
Kentucky labor rates
Auto repair labor rate questions, Kentucky
Q1What is the average auto repair labor rate in Kentucky?
The average posted auto repair labor rate in Kentucky works out to about $69 per hour, with most shops falling between $58 and $81. That figure is derived, not surveyed: it comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics mean hourly wage for automotive service technicians in Kentucky, which is $23.07, multiplied by 3 to cover payroll taxes and benefits, the building, tooling, insurance, software, front-counter time and profit. The national equivalent is $81 per hour, so Kentucky sits −$12 against it.
Q2How much do auto mechanics make in Kentucky?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the mean hourly wage for automotive service technicians and mechanics in Kentucky at $23.07, on a workforce of 11,140. The median is $21.58. The bottom ten percent earn about $14.53 an hour and the top ten percent about $35.54, so the best-paid technicians in the state earn roughly 2.4 times what the entry level does. These are surveyed figures from the May 2025 release, not estimates.
Q3Is Kentucky an expensive state for auto repair?
On labor, Kentucky ranks 49 of 51 nationally by technician wage. Its derived door rate runs about $12 an hour below the national average. Bear in mind that variation inside a state is routinely larger than the gap between two states: a shop in a major metro and one an hour outside it can post rates thirty dollars apart while sharing the same state average.
Q4How do I set my shop's labor rate in Kentucky?
Work forward from your own costs, not backward from the state average. Add annual fixed overhead, non-billable payroll, technician payroll including taxes and benefits, and the profit the business needs, then divide by the hours you can realistically sell — which is well below the hours your technicians are present. Use the $69 Kentucky figure on this page to sanity-check the answer, not to replace the calculation. If your number lands far outside the $58 to $81 range, that is worth understanding rather than ignoring.
Q5How many auto technicians work in Kentucky?
11,140, according to the May 2025 BLS survey. That is 5.57 automotive service technicians for every 1,000 jobs of all kinds in Kentucky, a concentration noticeably more concentrated than the country as a whole — the BLS location quotient is 1.23, where 1.00 means exactly average. Hiring pressure tends to track that number more closely than it tracks the wage.
Labor rates in other states
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