Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$27,948
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,122
12.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,209
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
$32,070
Kept after tax
$27,948
Worth in national money
$30,209
State rank
34
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $32,070, 34 of 46 states and about 22.91% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Tennessee this is lower-paid work. Of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 460. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $32,070 you keep $27,948 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $30,209 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $33,970, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $32,070 median for personal care and service workers, all other places it 34 of 46 states, about 22.91% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Tennessee reports, personal care and service workers, all other ranks 460 of 491, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $27,948 after the full tax stack, from $32,070. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $30,209 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $33,970 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $32,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,960 |
| This salary | $32,070 |
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 | $27,948 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,948 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,449 |
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 | $32,070 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,752 |
| 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 personal care and service workers, all other in Tennessee earn under $32,070 and half over. The published range runs $23,690 at the tenth percentile to $47,960 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $27,948 take-home in Tennessee comes from $32,070. 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 460 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $30,209 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 460.
- Figures are distribution medians for personal care and service workers, all other in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $23,690 to $47,960; 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 $27,948, from $32,070, 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 460 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 46 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $30,209, worked from $32,070, 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 460 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $33,970, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $23,690 and the top tenth $47,960 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $30,209 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $27,948 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. 46 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 $33,970. 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 ($23,690) and the ninetieth ($47,960) 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 $30,209 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 $27,948 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.