Welder salary in Paducah, KY-IL
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Welders in the Paducah, KY-IL area earn a median of $48,560 a year, or $23.35 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $66,580 a year. That's 6% less than the Kentucky median of $51,470.
- Entry-level starting pay (estimate)
- $18.89/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 310
- After cost of living
- $56,410
- Median hourly pay
- $23.35/hr
- vs U.S. median
- −10%
- vs Kentucky median
- −6%
- Mean (average) pay
- $52,270 a year · $25.13 an hour
Pay by percentile
What welders in Paducah, KY-IL earn at each point of the pay range, May 2025: 10% earn less than the 10th percentile, half earn less than the median, and 10% earn more than the 90th.
| Percentile | Hourly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $18.89 | $39,300 |
| 25th percentile | $21.42 | $44,550 |
| Median (50th) | $23.35 | $48,560 |
| 75th percentile | $28.27 | $58,800 |
| 90th percentile | $32.01 | $66,580 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Paducah, KY-IL compares
- Paducah ranks 8th of 9 Kentucky metro areas for welder pay.
- Welders are more concentrated in the Paducah area than nationally: 6.1 of every 1,000 jobs, 2.3 times the U.S. share.
Other Kentucky metro areas
Other trades in Paducah, KY-IL
Questions
- Do welders make more in Paducah or Elizabethtown?
- Elizabethtown pays more: the median is $48,560 in Paducah and $59,900 in Elizabethtown, a 19% difference.
About this data
Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 51-4121 (Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers), area code 37140 (Paducah, KY-IL). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed welders and business owners aren't included. The cost-of-living figure divides the median by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity for 2024 (86.1, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures