Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,337
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$6,173
14.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,277
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
$42,510
Kept after tax
$36,337
Worth in national money
$39,277
State rank
48
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 $42,510. That is 48 of 50 states, and about 20.3% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, this job lands at 372. 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 $42,510 the take-home is $36,337; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $39,277 would nationally. The average comes to $45,850, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $42,510, ranking 48 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 20.3%. 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 372 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 paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators in Tennessee, on $42,510, is $36,337 — equivalent to $39,277 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 $45,850 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,300 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,300 |
| This salary | $42,510 |
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 | $36,337 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,337 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,884 |
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 | $42,510 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,278 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $42,510 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,300 and the ninetieth is $60,300 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Tennessee the take-home figure of $36,337, from $42,510, 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 372 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $39,277, the adjusted value of that $42,510 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 372 of 491 locally.
- The Tennessee median of $42,510 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,300 to $60,300. 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 $36,337 from $42,510. 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 372 of 491 locally.
- This $39,277 adjusted figure, worked from $42,510, 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 372 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 372 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 $45,850, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $36,300 and the top tenth $60,300, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $39,277 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $36,337 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $45,850. 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 ($36,300 to $60,300) 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 $39,277 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 $36,337 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.