Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,543
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$6,957
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,742
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
$46,500
Kept after tax
$39,543
Worth in national money
$42,742
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $46,500, 43 of 51 states and about 22.86% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 326 among 491 occupations Tennessee publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $46,500 you keep $39,543 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $42,742 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $50,000, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $46,500 median for mental health and substance abuse social workers places it 43 of 51 states, about 22.86% 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 326 of 491 in Tennessee places mental health and substance abuse social workers 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 $39,543 after the full tax stack, from $46,500. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $42,742 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $50,000 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,320 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $68,430 |
| This salary | $46,500 |
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 | $39,543 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,543 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,050 |
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 | $46,500 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,479 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,500 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,320 and the ninetieth is $68,430 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $39,543, from $46,500, 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 326 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $42,742, the adjusted value of that $46,500 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 326 of 491 locally.
- The Tennessee median of $46,500 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,320 to $68,430. 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 $39,543 from $46,500. 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 326 of 491 locally.
- This $42,742 adjusted figure, worked from $46,500, 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 326 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 326 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 $50,000 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $38,320 at the tenth percentile, $68,430 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 $42,742 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $39,543 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?
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 $50,000. 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 ($38,320 to $68,430) 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 $42,742 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 $39,543 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.