Atmospheric and Space Scientists in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,500
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$19,690
20.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$82,689
Tennessee costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Tennessee — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
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
$96,190
Kept after tax
$76,500
Worth in national money
$82,689
State rank
28
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays atmospheric and space scientists around $96,190 at the midpoint, 28 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Within Tennessee this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, atmospheric and space scientists ranks 59 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $96,190 you keep $76,500 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $82,689 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $104,300, since top earners drag the number up.
- For atmospheric and space scientists the Tennessee median is $96,190, ranking 28 of 47 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Ranked against every occupation Tennessee publishes a median for, atmospheric and space scientists sits 59 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $76,500 after the full tax stack, from $96,190. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $82,689 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $104,300 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Atmospheric and Space Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $77,580 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $96,190 |
| Top tenth earn over | $137,880 |
| This salary | $96,190 |
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
| Take-home in Tennessee | $76,500 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $76,500 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,965 |
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
| To match take-home only | $96,190 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,477 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of atmospheric and space scientists in Tennessee earn under $96,190 and half over. The published range runs $77,580 at the tenth percentile to $137,880 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $76,500, from $96,190, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 59 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $82,689, the adjusted value of that $96,190 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Tennessee. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 59 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for atmospheric and space scientists in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $77,580 to $137,880; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Tennessee is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $76,500 from $96,190. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 59 of 491 locally.
- This $82,689 adjusted figure, worked from $96,190, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 59 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 59 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $104,300 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $77,580 at the tenth percentile, $137,880 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $82,689.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $76,500 of this wage reaches your account, because Tennessee takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 47 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Tennessee is $104,300. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($77,580 to $137,880) 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 $82,689 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 $76,500 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.