Compensation and Benefits Managers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$102,021
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$30,759
23.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$110,275
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
$132,780
Kept after tax
$102,021
Worth in national money
$110,275
State rank
23
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays this job around $132,780 at the midpoint, 23 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Within Tennessee this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 14 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $132,780 you keep $102,021 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $110,275 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $148,100, since top earners drag the number up.
- For compensation and benefits managers the Tennessee median is $132,780, ranking 23 of 45 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.
- Ranked against every occupation Tennessee publishes a median for, compensation and benefits managers sits 14 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $102,021 after the full tax stack, from $132,780. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $110,275 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $148,100 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Compensation and Benefits Managers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $83,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $132,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $258,950 |
| This salary | $132,780 |
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 | $102,021 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $102,021 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,288 |
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 | $132,780 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,518 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $132,780 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $83,010 and the ninetieth is $258,950 — 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 $102,021, worked from $132,780. 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 14 of 491.
- Two cautions on $110,275, the adjusted value of that $132,780 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 14 of 491 locally.
- The Tennessee median of $132,780 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $83,010 to $258,950. 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 $102,021, on $132,780 for work ranking 14 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 14 of 491 in the state.
- This $110,275 adjusted figure, worked from $132,780, 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 14 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 14 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 $148,100 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $83,010 and the top tenth $258,950 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $110,275 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $102,021 of this wage reaches your account, because Tennessee takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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 $148,100. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($83,010) and the ninetieth ($258,950) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
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 $110,275 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 $102,021 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.