Butchers and Meat Cutters in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,288
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$5,672
14.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,062
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
$39,960
Kept after tax
$34,288
Worth in national money
$37,062
State rank
26
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays butchers and meat cutters around $39,960 at the midpoint, 26 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, butchers and meat cutters lands at 391. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $39,960 the take-home is $34,288; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $37,062 would nationally. The average lands at $39,550, below the middle of the range.
- For butchers and meat cutters the Tennessee median is $39,960, ranking 26 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.
- Within Tennessee, this work ranks 391 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.
- Post-tax income for butchers and meat cutters in Tennessee, on $39,960, is $34,288 — equivalent to $37,062 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $39,550 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Butchers and Meat Cutters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,710 |
| This salary | $39,960 |
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 | $34,288 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,288 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,777 |
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 | $39,960 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,149 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $39,960 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,520 and the ninetieth is $47,710 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $34,288, from $39,960, 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 391 of 491 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,062, the adjusted value of that $39,960 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 391 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $39,960 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,520 to $47,710. 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 $34,288 from $39,960. 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 391 of 491 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $37,062 — the adjusted value of that $39,960 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 391 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $26,520 at the bottom tenth to $47,710 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 $37,062 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $34,288 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?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($26,520 to $47,710) 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 $37,062 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 $34,288 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.