Interpreters and Translators in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,223
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$7,857
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,720
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
$51,080
Kept after tax
$43,223
Worth in national money
$46,720
State rank
31
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays interpreters and translators around $51,080 at the midpoint, 31 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 260 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 $51,080 you keep $43,223 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $46,720 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $53,590, since top earners drag the number up.
- For interpreters and translators the Tennessee median is $51,080, ranking 31 of 47 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Interpreters and translators ranks 260 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 $43,223 after the full tax stack, from $51,080. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $46,720 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $53,590 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Interpreters and Translators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,280 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,480 |
| This salary | $51,080 |
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 | $43,223 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,223 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,240 |
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 | $51,080 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,710 |
| 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 interpreters and translators in Tennessee earn under $51,080 and half over. The published range runs $32,280 at the tenth percentile to $78,480 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $43,223, from $51,080, 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 260 of 491 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $46,720 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 260.
- Figures are distribution medians for interpreters and translators in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $32,280 to $78,480; 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 $43,223 from $51,080. 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 260 of 491 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $46,720, worked from $51,080, 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 260 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 $53,590, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $32,280 and the top tenth $78,480 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $46,720 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $43,223 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?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 $53,590. 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 ($32,280) and the ninetieth ($78,480) 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 $46,720 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 $43,223 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.