Packers and Packagers, Hand in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,090
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,890
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,605
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
$35,980
Kept after tax
$31,090
Worth in national money
$33,605
State rank
28
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays packers and packagers, hand around $35,980 at the midpoint, 28 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, packers and packagers, hand lands at 434. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $35,980 the take-home is $31,090; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $33,605 would nationally. The average comes to $36,170, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For packers and packagers, hand the Tennessee median is $35,980, ranking 28 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Tennessee, this work ranks 434 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.
- Post-tax income for packers and packagers, hand in Tennessee, on $35,980, is $31,090 — equivalent to $33,605 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 $36,170 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Packers and Packagers, Hand
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,980 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,990 |
| This salary | $35,980 |
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 | $31,090 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,090 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,612 |
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 | $35,980 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,949 |
| 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 $35,980. The published range is $26,940 up to $46,990, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $31,090 take-home in Tennessee comes from $35,980. 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 434 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $33,605, the adjusted value of that $35,980 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 434 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for packers and packagers, hand in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $26,940 to $46,990. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $31,090, from $35,980, 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 434 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 28 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $33,605 — the adjusted value of that $35,980 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 434 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $26,940 at the tenth percentile, $46,990 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Tennessee sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $33,605 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $31,090 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($26,940 to $46,990) 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 $33,605 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 $31,090 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.