Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,893
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$7,287
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,201
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
$48,180
Kept after tax
$40,893
Worth in national money
$44,201
State rank
34
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays this job around $48,180 at the midpoint, 34 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 300 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Tennessee does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $48,180 you keep $40,893, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $44,201 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $50,230, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks the Tennessee median is $48,180, ranking 34 of 51 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.
- Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks ranks 300 of 491 occupations in Tennessee by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- After federal, FICA and Tennessee income tax, retained pay for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks on $48,180 is $40,893. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $44,201 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $50,230 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,000 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,180 |
| Top tenth earn over | $67,730 |
| This salary | $48,180 |
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 | $40,893 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,893 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,120 |
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 | $48,180 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,564 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Tennessee earn less than $48,180. The published range is $35,000 up to $67,730, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $40,893 take-home in Tennessee comes from $48,180. 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 300 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $44,201, the adjusted value of that $48,180 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 300 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,000 to $67,730. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $40,893, from $48,180, 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 300 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $44,201 — the adjusted value of that $48,180 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 300 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 $50,230 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,000 and the top tenth $67,730, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $44,201 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $40,893 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?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $50,230. 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 ($35,000 to $67,730) 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 $44,201 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 $40,893 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.