Massage Therapists in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,411
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$7,659
15.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,843
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
$50,070
Kept after tax
$42,411
Worth in national money
$45,843
State rank
40
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays massage therapists a middle wage of $50,070, 40 of 50 states and about 14.34% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Massage therapists ranks 273 among 491 occupations Tennessee publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $50,070 you keep $42,411 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $45,843 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $57,350, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $50,070 median for massage therapists places it 40 of 50 states, about 14.34% 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.
- Position 273 of 491 in Tennessee places massage therapists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $42,411 after the full tax stack, from $50,070. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $45,843 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $57,350 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,960 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $95,260 |
| This salary | $50,070 |
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 | $42,411 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,411 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,198 |
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 | $50,070 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,659 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $50,070 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,960 and the ninetieth is $95,260 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $42,411, from $50,070, 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 273 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $45,843, the adjusted value of that $50,070 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 273 of 491 locally.
- The Tennessee median of $50,070 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,960 to $95,260. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Tennessee is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $42,411 from $50,070. 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 273 of 491 locally.
- This $45,843 adjusted figure, worked from $50,070, 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 273 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 273 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 $57,350 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $36,960 and the top tenth $95,260 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $45,843.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $42,411 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.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 $57,350. 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 ($36,960) and the ninetieth ($95,260) 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 $45,843 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 $42,411 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.