Emergency Medical Technicians in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,585
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$5,745
14.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,383
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
$40,330
Kept after tax
$34,585
Worth in national money
$37,383
State rank
31
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays this job around $40,330 at the midpoint, 31 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, this job lands at 387. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $40,330 you keep $34,585 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $37,383 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $43,370, since top earners drag the number up.
- For emergency medical technicians the Tennessee median is $40,330, ranking 31 of 51 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 387 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.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $34,585 after the full tax stack, from $40,330. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $37,383 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $43,370 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Emergency Medical Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,720 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $59,370 |
| This salary | $40,330 |
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 | $34,585 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,585 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,793 |
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 | $40,330 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,168 |
| 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 emergency medical technicians in Tennessee earn under $40,330 and half over. The published range runs $29,720 at the tenth percentile to $59,370 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $34,585 take-home in Tennessee comes from $40,330. 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 387 of 491.
- Two cautions on $37,383, the adjusted value of that $40,330 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 387 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for emergency medical technicians in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $29,720 to $59,370; 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 $34,585, from $40,330, 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 387 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 31 of 51 for it.
- This $37,383 adjusted figure, worked from $40,330, 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 387 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 387 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 $43,370, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $29,720 at the bottom tenth to $59,370 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $37,383 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $34,585 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 $43,370. 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 ($29,720) and the ninetieth ($59,370) 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 $37,383 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 $34,585 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.