Conservation Scientists in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,427
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$12,073
17.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,154
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
$70,500
Kept after tax
$58,427
Worth in national money
$63,154
State rank
31
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Tennessee sits in the middle of the pack for conservation scientists. The median is $70,500, ranking 31 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 140 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $70,500 you keep $58,427 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $63,154 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $75,250, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee occupies the middle band for conservation scientists: a median of $70,500, ranking 31 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Conservation scientists ranks 140 of 491 occupations in Tennessee by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $58,427 after the full tax stack, from $70,500. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $63,154 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $75,250 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Conservation Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $70,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $109,300 |
| This salary | $70,500 |
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 | $58,427 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $58,427 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,029 |
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 | $70,500 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,183 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of conservation scientists in Tennessee earn under $70,500 and half over. The published range runs $48,190 at the tenth percentile to $109,300 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $58,427 take-home in Tennessee comes from $70,500. 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 140 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $63,154, the adjusted value of that $70,500 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 140 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for conservation scientists in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $48,190 to $109,300; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $58,427, from $70,500, 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 140 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 31 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $63,154 — the adjusted value of that $70,500 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 140 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 $75,250 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 $48,190 and the top tenth $109,300 — 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 $63,154 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $58,427 survives, because Tennessee levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $75,250. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($48,190) and the ninetieth ($109,300) 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 $63,154 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 $58,427 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.