Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,354
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$7,156
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,619
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
$47,510
Kept after tax
$40,354
Worth in national money
$43,619
State rank
38
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays drywall and ceiling tile installers a middle wage of $47,510, 38 of 49 states and about 19.38% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 312 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 $47,510 the take-home is $40,354; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $43,619 would nationally. The average comes to $49,710, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Tennessee's $47,510 median for drywall and ceiling tile installers places it 38 of 49 states, about 19.38% 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.
- Drywall and ceiling tile installers ranks 312 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 drywall and ceiling tile installers in Tennessee, on $47,510, is $40,354 — equivalent to $43,619 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 $49,710 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $65,650 |
| This salary | $47,510 |
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 | $40,354 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,354 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,092 |
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 | $47,510 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,530 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Tennessee earn less than $47,510. The published range is $37,220 up to $65,650, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $40,354, worked from $47,510. 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 312 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $43,619 uses one figure for the whole of Tennessee. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 312.
- Reported values are medians; for drywall and ceiling tile installers in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,220 to $65,650. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Tennessee take-home of $40,354, on $47,510 for work ranking 312 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 312 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $43,619, worked from $47,510, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Tennessee address, on work sitting at 312 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 $49,710 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $37,220 at the bottom tenth to $65,650 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $43,619.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $40,354 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?
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 $49,710. 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 ($37,220 to $65,650) 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 $43,619 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 $40,354 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.