Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,926
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$5,094
13.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,509
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
$37,020
Kept after tax
$31,926
Worth in national money
$34,509
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays landscaping and groundskeeping workers a middle wage of $37,020, 41 of 51 states and about 5.44% 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, landscaping and groundskeeping workers ranks 420. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $37,020 you keep $31,926 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,509 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $38,600, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $37,020 median for landscaping and groundskeeping workers places it 41 of 51 states, about 5.44% 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, landscaping and groundskeeping workers ranks 420 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 $31,926 after the full tax stack, from $37,020. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,509 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $38,600 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,480 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,650 |
| This salary | $37,020 |
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 | $31,926 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,926 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,655 |
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 | $37,020 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,001 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,020 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,480 and the ninetieth is $47,650 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $31,926 take-home in Tennessee comes from $37,020. 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 420 of 491.
- Two cautions on $34,509, the adjusted value of that $37,020 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 420 of 491 locally.
- The Tennessee median of $37,020 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,480 to $47,650. 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 $31,926, from $37,020, 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 420 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 51 for it.
- This $34,509 adjusted figure, worked from $37,020, 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 420 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 420 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 $38,600, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $29,480 at the tenth percentile, $47,650 at the ninetieth.
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 $34,509 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $31,926 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $38,600. 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 ($29,480 to $47,650) 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 $34,509 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 $31,926 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.