Insurance Sales Agents in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,076
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$9,044
15.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,966
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
$57,120
Kept after tax
$48,076
Worth in national money
$51,966
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays insurance sales agents a middle wage of $57,120, 41 of 51 states and about 8.29% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 491 occupations Tennessee reports figures for, this is number 233.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $57,120 you keep $48,076 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $51,966 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $71,520, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $57,120 median for insurance sales agents places it 41 of 51 states, about 8.29% 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.
- In Tennessee's occupational distribution, insurance sales agents sits at 233 of 491 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $48,076 after the full tax stack, from $57,120. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $51,966 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $71,520 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Insurance Sales Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,130 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $122,040 |
| This salary | $57,120 |
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 | $48,076 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,076 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,492 |
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 | $57,120 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,014 |
| 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 insurance sales agents in Tennessee earn under $57,120 and half over. The published range runs $37,130 at the tenth percentile to $122,040 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $48,076, from $57,120, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 233 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $51,966, the adjusted value of that $57,120 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 233 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for insurance sales agents in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,130 to $122,040; 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.
- Take-home for Tennessee is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $48,076 from $57,120. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 233 of 491 locally.
- This $51,966 adjusted figure, worked from $57,120, 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 233 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 233 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $71,520 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $37,130 at the bottom tenth to $122,040 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 $51,966 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $48,076 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?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 $71,520. 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 ($37,130) and the ninetieth ($122,040) 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 $51,966 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 $48,076 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.