Baggage Porters and Bellhops in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$27,940
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,120
12.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,201
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
$32,060
Kept after tax
$27,940
Worth in national money
$30,201
State rank
26
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays baggage porters and bellhops around $32,060 at the midpoint, 26 of 48 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, baggage porters and bellhops lands at 461. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $32,060 you keep $27,940 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $30,201 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $29,310.
- For baggage porters and bellhops the Tennessee median is $32,060, ranking 26 of 48 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.
- Within Tennessee, this work ranks 461 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $27,940 after the full tax stack, from $32,060. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $30,201 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $29,310 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Baggage Porters and Bellhops
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $17,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $32,060 |
| Top tenth earn over | $37,270 |
| This salary | $32,060 |
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 | $27,940 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,940 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,448 |
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 | $32,060 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,752 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $32,060 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $17,710 and the ninetieth is $37,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $27,940, from $32,060, 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 461 of 491 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $30,201 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 461.
- The Tennessee median of $32,060 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $17,710 to $37,270. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Tennessee is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $27,940 from $32,060. 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 461 of 491 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $30,201, worked from $32,060, 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 461 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $29,310, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $17,710 at the tenth percentile, $37,270 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Tennessee is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $30,201 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $27,940 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 48 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 $29,310. 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 ($17,710 to $37,270) 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 $30,201 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 $27,940 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.