Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,558
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$6,472
14.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,597
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
$44,030
Kept after tax
$37,558
Worth in national money
$40,597
State rank
36
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Tennessee is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $44,030, ranking 36 of 47 states — about 5.45% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 359 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $44,030 the take-home is $37,558; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $40,597 would nationally. The average lands at $42,920, below the middle of the range.
- Tennessee ranks 36 of 47 for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders, with a median of $44,030 — about 5.45% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 359 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.
- Post-tax income for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Tennessee, on $44,030, is $37,558 — equivalent to $40,597 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 $42,920 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,210 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,000 |
| This salary | $44,030 |
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 | $37,558 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,558 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,947 |
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 | $44,030 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,354 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $44,030 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,210 and the ninetieth is $50,000 — 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 $37,558, worked from $44,030. 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 359 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $40,597, the adjusted value of that $44,030 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 359 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $44,030 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,210 to $50,000. 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 $37,558, on $44,030 for work ranking 359 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 359 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $40,597 — the adjusted value of that $44,030 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 359 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,210 and the top tenth $50,000, 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 $40,597 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $37,558 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. 47 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 ($35,210 to $50,000) 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 $40,597 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 $37,558 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.