Clergy in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,188
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$9,072
15.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,087
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
$57,260
Kept after tax
$48,188
Worth in national money
$52,087
State rank
39
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for clergy is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $57,260. That is 39 of 50 states, and about 5.84% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Clergy ranks 232 among 491 occupations Tennessee publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $57,260 you keep $48,188 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $52,087 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $58,550, since top earners drag the number up.
- For clergy, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $57,260, ranking 39 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 5.84%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 232 of 491 in Tennessee places clergy 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.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $48,188 after the full tax stack, from $57,260. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $52,087 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $58,550 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Clergy
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,260 |
| Top tenth earn over | $73,920 |
| This salary | $57,260 |
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 | $48,188 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,188 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,498 |
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 | $57,260 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,021 |
| 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 $57,260. The published range is $41,600 up to $73,920, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $48,188 take-home in Tennessee comes from $57,260. 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 232 of 491.
- Two cautions on $52,087, the adjusted value of that $57,260 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 232 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for clergy in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $41,600 to $73,920. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $48,188, from $57,260, 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 232 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 39 of 50 for it.
- This $52,087 adjusted figure, worked from $57,260, 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 232 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 232 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $41,600 and the top tenth $73,920, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $52,087.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $48,188 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($41,600 to $73,920) 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 $52,087 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 $48,188 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.