Motor Vehicle Operators, All Other in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,137
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,413
13.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,495
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
$33,550
Kept after tax
$29,137
Worth in national money
$31,495
State rank
39
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $33,550. That is 39 of 51 states, and about 9.76% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, this job lands at 455. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Tennessee does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $33,550 you keep $29,137, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $31,495 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $35,290, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For motor vehicle operators, all other, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $33,550, ranking 39 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 9.76%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Tennessee, this work ranks 455 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After federal, FICA and Tennessee income tax, retained pay for motor vehicle operators, all other on $33,550 is $29,137. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $31,495 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $35,290 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Motor Vehicle Operators, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $20,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $33,550 |
| Top tenth earn over | $51,500 |
| This salary | $33,550 |
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 | $29,137 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,137 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,510 |
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 | $33,550 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,827 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $33,550 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $20,440 and the ninetieth is $51,500 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $29,137, worked from $33,550. 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 455 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $31,495, the adjusted value of that $33,550 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 455 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $33,550 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $20,440 to $51,500. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Tennessee take-home of $29,137, on $33,550 for work ranking 455 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 455 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $31,495 — the adjusted value of that $33,550 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 455 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 $35,290 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 $20,440 and the top tenth $51,500 — 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 $31,495.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $29,137 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 $35,290. 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 ($20,440) and the ninetieth ($51,500) 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 $31,495 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 $29,137 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.