Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,442
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$9,378
15.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,442
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
$58,820
Kept after tax
$49,442
Worth in national money
$53,442
State rank
36
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Tennessee is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $58,820, ranking 36 of 51 states — about 6.47% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 216 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $58,820 you keep $49,442 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $53,442 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $60,790, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee ranks 36 of 51 for paralegals and legal assistants, with a median of $58,820 — about 6.47% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Paralegals and legal assistants ranks 216 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.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $49,442 after the full tax stack, from $58,820. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $53,442 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $60,790 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Paralegals and Legal Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,570 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,820 |
| Top tenth earn over | $83,100 |
| This salary | $58,820 |
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 | $49,442 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,442 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,563 |
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 | $58,820 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,099 |
| 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 paralegals and legal assistants in Tennessee earn under $58,820 and half over. The published range runs $43,570 at the tenth percentile to $83,100 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $49,442 take-home in Tennessee comes from $58,820. 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 216 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $53,442 uses one figure for the whole of Tennessee. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 216.
- Figures are distribution medians for paralegals and legal assistants in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,570 to $83,100; 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 $49,442, from $58,820, 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 216 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 36 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $53,442, worked from $58,820, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Tennessee address, on work sitting at 216 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $60,790, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $43,570 at the tenth percentile, $83,100 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 $53,442 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $49,442 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?
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 $60,790. 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 ($43,570 to $83,100) 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 $53,442 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 $49,442 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.