History Teachers, Postsecondary in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,143
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$12,797
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,009
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
$72,940
Kept after tax
$60,143
Worth in national money
$65,009
State rank
36
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $72,940, 36 of 45 states and about 12.98% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 132 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 $72,940 you keep $60,143 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $65,009 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $78,350, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $72,940 median for history teachers, postsecondary places it 36 of 45 states, about 12.98% 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.
- History teachers, postsecondary ranks 132 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 $60,143 after the full tax stack, from $72,940. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $65,009 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $78,350 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: History Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $72,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $102,420 |
| This salary | $72,940 |
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 | $60,143 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,143 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,118 |
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 | $72,940 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,306 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $72,940 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,760 and the ninetieth is $102,420 — 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 $60,143, worked from $72,940. 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 132 of 491.
- Two cautions on $65,009, the adjusted value of that $72,940 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 132 of 491 locally.
- The Tennessee median of $72,940 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,760 to $102,420. 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 $60,143, on $72,940 for work ranking 132 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 132 of 491 in the state.
- This $65,009 adjusted figure, worked from $72,940, 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 132 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 132 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 $78,350, 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 $49,760, the highest tenth $102,420, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $65,009 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $60,143 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?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 45 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $78,350. 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 ($49,760) and the ninetieth ($102,420) 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 $65,009 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 $60,143 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.