Marriage and Family Therapists in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,703
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$6,997
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,916
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
$46,700
Kept after tax
$39,703
Worth in national money
$42,916
State rank
42
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays marriage and family therapists a middle wage of $46,700, 42 of 45 states and about 30.24% 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 324.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $46,700 you keep $39,703 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $42,916 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $49,050, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $46,700 median for marriage and family therapists places it 42 of 45 states, about 30.24% 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, marriage and family therapists sits at 324 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 $39,703 after the full tax stack, from $46,700. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $42,916 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $49,050 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Marriage and Family Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,540 |
| This salary | $46,700 |
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 | $39,703 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,703 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,058 |
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 | $46,700 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,489 |
| 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 marriage and family therapists in Tennessee earn under $46,700 and half over. The published range runs $34,690 at the tenth percentile to $63,540 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $39,703, worked from $46,700. 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 324 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $42,916, the adjusted value of that $46,700 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 324 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for marriage and family therapists in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,690 to $63,540; 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.
- The Tennessee take-home of $39,703, on $46,700 for work ranking 324 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 324 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $42,916 — the adjusted value of that $46,700 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 324 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 $49,050, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $34,690 at the tenth percentile, $63,540 at the ninetieth.
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 $42,916 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $39,703 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. 45 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 $49,050. 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 ($34,690 to $63,540) 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 $42,916 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 $39,703 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.