Light Truck Drivers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,378
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$6,672
14.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,483
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
$45,050
Kept after tax
$38,378
Worth in national money
$41,483
State rank
23
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Tennessee is 23 of 51 states for light truck drivers, with a middle wage of $45,050. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 491 occupations Tennessee reports figures for, this is number 346.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $45,050 the take-home is $38,378; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $41,483 would nationally. The average comes to $49,120, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Tennessee ranks 23 of 51 for light truck drivers at $45,050. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- In Tennessee's occupational distribution, light truck drivers sits at 346 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.
- Post-tax income for light truck drivers in Tennessee, on $45,050, is $38,378 — equivalent to $41,483 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $49,120 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Light Truck Drivers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $83,480 |
| This salary | $45,050 |
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 | $38,378 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,378 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,989 |
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 | $45,050 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,406 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Tennessee earn less than $45,050. The published range is $29,190 up to $83,480, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $38,378, worked from $45,050. 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 346 of 491.
- Two cautions on $41,483, the adjusted value of that $45,050 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 346 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for light truck drivers in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $29,190 to $83,480. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Tennessee take-home of $38,378, on $45,050 for work ranking 346 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 346 of 491 in the state.
- This $41,483 adjusted figure, worked from $45,050, 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 346 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 346 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 $49,120, 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 $29,190, the highest tenth $83,480, 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 $41,483 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $38,378 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 $49,120. 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 ($29,190) and the ninetieth ($83,480) 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 $41,483 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 $38,378 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.