Mechanical Drafters in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,114
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$10,276
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,411
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
$63,390
Kept after tax
$53,114
Worth in national money
$57,411
State rank
34
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for mechanical drafters is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $63,390. That is 34 of 47 states, and about 11.4% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Mechanical drafters ranks 167 among 491 occupations Tennessee publishes pay for.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $63,390 the take-home is $53,114; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $57,411 would nationally. The average comes to $68,100, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For mechanical drafters, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $63,390, ranking 34 of 47 and trailing the national median by about 11.4%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 167 of 491 in Tennessee places mechanical drafters 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.
- Post-tax income for mechanical drafters in Tennessee, on $63,390, is $53,114 — equivalent to $57,411 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 $68,100 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Mechanical Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,390 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,210 |
| This salary | $63,390 |
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 | $53,114 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,114 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,753 |
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 | $63,390 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,361 |
| 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 $63,390. The published range is $47,440 up to $96,210, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $53,114, from $63,390, 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 167 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $57,411, the adjusted value of that $63,390 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 167 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for mechanical drafters in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $47,440 to $96,210. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Tennessee is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $53,114 from $63,390. 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 167 of 491 locally.
- This $57,411 adjusted figure, worked from $63,390, 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 167 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 167 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 $68,100 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 $47,440 and the top tenth $96,210 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $57,411 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $53,114 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. 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 $68,100. 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 ($47,440) and the ninetieth ($96,210) 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 $57,411 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 $53,114 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.