Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,785
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$7,995
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,328
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
$51,780
Kept after tax
$43,785
Worth in national money
$47,328
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for payroll and timekeeping clerks is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $51,780. That is 43 of 51 states, and about 11.12% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 256 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 $51,780 you keep $43,785 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $47,328 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $54,220, since top earners drag the number up.
- For payroll and timekeeping clerks, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $51,780, ranking 43 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 11.12%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Payroll and timekeeping clerks ranks 256 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 $43,785 after the full tax stack, from $51,780. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $47,328 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $54,220 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,270 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,160 |
| This salary | $51,780 |
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 | $43,785 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,785 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,270 |
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 | $51,780 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,745 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $51,780 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,270 and the ninetieth is $75,160 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $43,785 take-home in Tennessee comes from $51,780. 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 256 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $47,328, the adjusted value of that $51,780 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 256 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $51,780 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,270 to $75,160. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $43,785, from $51,780, 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 256 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 43 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $47,328 — the adjusted value of that $51,780 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 256 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 $54,220, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $36,270, the highest tenth $75,160, 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 $47,328.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $43,785 survives, because Tennessee levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $54,220. 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 ($36,270) and the ninetieth ($75,160) 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 $47,328 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 $43,785 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.