Occupational Therapy Assistants in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,334
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$10,086
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,569
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
$62,420
Kept after tax
$52,334
Worth in national money
$56,569
State rank
43
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $62,420. That is 43 of 50 states, and about 13.67% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 173 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $62,420 the take-home is $52,334; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $56,569 would nationally. The average lands at $60,550, below the middle of the range.
- For occupational therapy assistants, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $62,420, ranking 43 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 13.67%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Occupational therapy assistants ranks 173 of 491 occupations in Tennessee by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for occupational therapy assistants in Tennessee, on $62,420, is $52,334 — equivalent to $56,569 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 $60,550 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Occupational Therapy Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,420 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,950 |
| This salary | $62,420 |
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 | $52,334 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,334 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,713 |
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 | $62,420 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,281 |
| 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 occupational therapy assistants in Tennessee earn under $62,420 and half over. The published range runs $23,910 at the tenth percentile to $78,950 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $52,334 take-home in Tennessee comes from $62,420. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 173 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $56,569, the adjusted value of that $62,420 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 173 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for occupational therapy assistants in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $23,910 to $78,950; 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.
- Retained pay of $52,334, from $62,420, assumes a single Tennessee filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 173 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 43 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $56,569 — the adjusted value of that $62,420 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 173 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $23,910, the highest tenth $78,950, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $56,569.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $52,334 survives, because Tennessee levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($23,910) and the ninetieth ($78,950) 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 $56,569 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 $52,334 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.