Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,113
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$7,097
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,359
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
$47,210
Kept after tax
$40,113
Worth in national money
$43,359
State rank
36
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $47,210, 36 of 50 states and about 2.16% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 491 occupations Tennessee reports figures for, this is number 320.
- Here is where Tennessee does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $47,210 you keep $40,113, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $43,359 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $49,840, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Tennessee's $47,210 median for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders places it 36 of 50 states, about 2.16% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- In Tennessee's occupational distribution, coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders sits at 320 of 491 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- After federal, FICA and Tennessee income tax, retained pay for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders on $47,210 is $40,113. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $43,359 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 $49,840 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,360 |
| This salary | $47,210 |
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 | $40,113 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,113 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,079 |
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 | $47,210 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,515 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,210 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,400 and the ninetieth is $63,360 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $40,113, from $47,210, 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 320 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 $43,359, the adjusted value of that $47,210 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 320 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $47,210 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,400 to $63,360. 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 $40,113 from $47,210. 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 320 of 491 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $43,359 — the adjusted value of that $47,210 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 320 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 $49,840 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 $36,400 and the top tenth $63,360, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $43,359 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $40,113 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. 50 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 $49,840. 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 ($36,400 to $63,360) 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 $43,359 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 $40,113 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.