Amusement and Recreation Attendants in Tennessee

One person mid-set at a squat rack at six in the morning on an empty gym floor.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$25,232

after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax

Tax takes

$3,458

12.1% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$27,274

Tennessee costs less than average

One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.

Median here

$28,690

Kept after tax

$25,232

Worth in national money

$27,274

State rank

31

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Neither high nor low. Tennessee is 31 of 51 states for this job, with a middle wage of $28,690. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
  • Within Tennessee this is lower-paid work. Of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 483. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $28,690 you keep $25,232 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $27,274 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $29,250, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Tennessee ranks 31 of 51 for amusement and recreation attendants at $28,690. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
  • Against every occupation Tennessee reports, amusement and recreation attendants ranks 483 of 491, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
  • Retained pay in Tennessee is $25,232 after the full tax stack, from $28,690. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $27,274 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $29,250 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Amusement and Recreation Attendants

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$21,060
Half earn under$28,690
Top tenth earn over$37,310
This salary$28,690

Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.

The same pay, somewhere else

The state median for this job

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Tennessee$25,232
Take-home in Texas$25,232
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,308

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.

What you would need there

The state median for this job

Moving to
$0$30,272
$30,272in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$28,690
Raise you would need+$1,582
Prices in Texas97 vs 93

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $28,690 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $21,060 and the ninetieth is $37,310 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • That $25,232 take-home in Tennessee comes from $28,690. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 483 of 491.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $27,274 uses one figure for the whole of Tennessee. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 483.
  • The Tennessee median of $28,690 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $21,060 to $37,310. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • Retained pay of $25,232, from $28,690, assumes a single Tennessee filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 483 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 31 of 51 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $27,274, worked from $28,690, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Tennessee address, on work sitting at 483 of 491 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $21,060 at the bottom tenth to $37,310 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Tennessee sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $27,274 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

Most of it arrives. $25,232 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.

Can I compare this job across every state?

This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($21,060 to $37,310) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Tennessee rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Tennessee's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $27,274 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.

Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?

Tennessee levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $25,232 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.

Is this occupation's state coverage complete?

State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.