Pharmacy Aides in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,422
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$3,748
12.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,559
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
$30,170
Kept after tax
$26,422
Worth in national money
$28,559
State rank
47
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for pharmacy aides is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $30,170. That is 47 of 48 states, and about 19.93% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, pharmacy aides lands at 475. 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 $30,170 the take-home is $26,422; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $28,559 would nationally. The average comes to $32,430, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For pharmacy aides, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $30,170, ranking 47 of 48 and trailing the national median by about 19.93%. 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 475 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 pharmacy aides in Tennessee, on $30,170, is $26,422 — equivalent to $28,559 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 $32,430 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: Pharmacy Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $25,230 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $39,360 |
| This salary | $30,170 |
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 | $26,422 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $26,422 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,370 |
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 | $30,170 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,656 |
| 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 $30,170. The published range is $25,230 up to $39,360, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $26,422, worked from $30,170. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 475 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,559, the adjusted value of that $30,170 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 475 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for pharmacy aides in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $25,230 to $39,360. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Tennessee take-home of $26,422, on $30,170 for work ranking 475 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 475 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $28,559 — the adjusted value of that $30,170 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 475 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 $32,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $25,230 and the top tenth $39,360, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $28,559.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $26,422 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. 48 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 $32,430. 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 ($25,230 to $39,360) 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 $28,559 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 $26,422 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.