Carpet Installers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,248
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$13,262
17.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,203
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
$74,510
Kept after tax
$61,248
Worth in national money
$66,203
State rank
4
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for carpet installers is strong here. Tennessee's middle earner gets $74,510, putting the state 4 of 45 — about 48.01% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Carpet installers ranks 126 among 491 occupations Tennessee publishes pay for.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $74,510 the take-home is $61,248; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $66,203 would nationally. The average lands at $66,250, below the middle of the range.
- For carpet installers, Tennessee sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $74,510, ranking 4 of 45 and running about 48.01% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 126 of 491 in Tennessee places carpet installers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Post-tax income for carpet installers in Tennessee, on $74,510, is $61,248 — equivalent to $66,203 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 $66,250 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Carpet Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,340 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,440 |
| This salary | $74,510 |
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 | $61,248 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,248 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,175 |
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 | $74,510 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,385 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $74,510 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $52,340 and the ninetieth is $79,440 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $61,248, worked from $74,510. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 126 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $66,203, the adjusted value of that $74,510 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 126 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $74,510 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $52,340 to $79,440. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Tennessee take-home of $61,248, on $74,510 for work ranking 126 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 126 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $66,203 — the adjusted value of that $74,510 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 126 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $66,250, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $52,340 at the bottom tenth to $79,440 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $66,203 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $61,248 survives, because Tennessee levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $66,250. 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 ($52,340 to $79,440) 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 $66,203 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 $61,248 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.