Food Preparation Workers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,240
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$3,460
12.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,283
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
$28,700
Kept after tax
$25,240
Worth in national money
$27,283
State rank
44
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays food preparation workers a middle wage of $28,700, 44 of 51 states and about 18.74% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Tennessee this is lower-paid work. Of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, food preparation workers ranks 482. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $28,700 you keep $25,240 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $27,283 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $30,860, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $28,700 median for food preparation workers places it 44 of 51 states, about 18.74% 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.
- Against every occupation Tennessee reports, food preparation workers ranks 482 of 491, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $25,240 after the full tax stack, from $28,700. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $27,283 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $30,860 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Food Preparation Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $22,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $28,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $39,660 |
| This salary | $28,700 |
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 | $25,240 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,240 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,308 |
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 | $28,700 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,582 |
| 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 food preparation workers in Tennessee earn under $28,700 and half over. The published range runs $22,290 at the tenth percentile to $39,660 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $25,240, worked from $28,700. 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 482 of 491.
- Two cautions on $27,283, the adjusted value of that $28,700 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 482 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for food preparation workers in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $22,290 to $39,660; 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.
- The Tennessee take-home of $25,240, on $28,700 for work ranking 482 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 482 of 491 in the state.
- This $27,283 adjusted figure, worked from $28,700, 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 482 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 482 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 $30,860, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $22,290 and the top tenth $39,660, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $27,283.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $25,240 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.
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 $30,860. 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 ($22,290 to $39,660) 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 $27,283 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 $25,240 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.