Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$79,630
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$21,010
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$86,073
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
$100,640
Kept after tax
$79,630
Worth in national money
$86,073
State rank
40
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $100,640, 40 of 48 states and about 7.9% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Tennessee reports, this job comes in at 44 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $100,640 the take-home is $79,630; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $86,073 would nationally. The average comes to $120,080, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Tennessee's $100,640 median for engineering teachers, postsecondary places it 40 of 48 states, about 7.9% 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.
- Engineering teachers, postsecondary ranks 44 of 491 occupations by median in Tennessee, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Post-tax income for engineering teachers, postsecondary in Tennessee, on $100,640, is $79,630 — equivalent to $86,073 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 $120,080 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $66,080 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $100,640 |
| Top tenth earn over | $178,740 |
| This salary | $100,640 |
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 | $79,630 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,630 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,128 |
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 | $100,640 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,701 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $100,640 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $66,080 and the ninetieth is $178,740 — 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 $79,630, worked from $100,640. 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 44 of 491.
- Two cautions on $86,073, the adjusted value of that $100,640 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 44 of 491 locally.
- The Tennessee median of $100,640 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $66,080 to $178,740. 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 $79,630, on $100,640 for work ranking 44 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 44 of 491 in the state.
- This $86,073 adjusted figure, worked from $100,640, 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 44 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 44 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $120,080, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $66,080 at the bottom tenth to $178,740 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $86,073 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $79,630 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 48 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 $120,080. 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 ($66,080) and the ninetieth ($178,740) 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 $86,073 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 $79,630 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.