English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,781
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$10,439
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,132
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
$64,220
Kept after tax
$53,781
Worth in national money
$58,132
State rank
37
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $64,220. That is 37 of 49 states, and about 18.46% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 159 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $64,220 you keep $53,781 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $58,132 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $70,650, since top earners drag the number up.
- For english language and literature teachers, postsecondary, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $64,220, ranking 37 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 18.46%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- English language and literature teachers, postsecondary ranks 159 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.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $53,781 after the full tax stack, from $64,220. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $58,132 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $70,650 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,580 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,170 |
| This salary | $64,220 |
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 | $53,781 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,781 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,788 |
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 | $64,220 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,527 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,220 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,580 and the ninetieth is $99,170 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $53,781 take-home in Tennessee comes from $64,220. 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 159 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $58,132 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 159.
- The Tennessee median of $64,220 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,580 to $99,170. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $53,781, from $64,220, 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 159 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 49 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $58,132, worked from $64,220, 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 159 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 $70,650, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $48,580, the highest tenth $99,170, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $58,132.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $53,781 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?
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 $70,650. 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 ($48,580) and the ninetieth ($99,170) 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 $58,132 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 $53,781 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.