Data Entry Keyers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,714
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$5,776
14.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,522
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
$40,490
Kept after tax
$34,714
Worth in national money
$37,522
State rank
26
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays data entry keyers around $40,490 at the midpoint, 26 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, data entry keyers lands at 386. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $40,490 the take-home is $34,714; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $37,522 would nationally. The average comes to $41,930, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For data entry keyers the Tennessee median is $40,490, ranking 26 of 49 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.
- Within Tennessee, this work ranks 386 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Post-tax income for data entry keyers in Tennessee, on $40,490, is $34,714 — equivalent to $37,522 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 $41,930 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Data Entry Keyers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,490 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,310 |
| This salary | $40,490 |
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 | $34,714 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,714 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,799 |
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 | $40,490 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,176 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $40,490 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,940 and the ninetieth is $57,310 — 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 $34,714, worked from $40,490. 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 386 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,522, the adjusted value of that $40,490 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 386 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $40,490 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,940 to $57,310. 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 $34,714, on $40,490 for work ranking 386 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 386 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $37,522 — the adjusted value of that $40,490 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 386 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $41,930, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $29,940 at the bottom tenth to $57,310 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Tennessee sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $37,522 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $34,714 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $41,930. 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 ($29,940 to $57,310) 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 $37,522 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 $34,714 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.