Physical Therapist Aides in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,542
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$3,778
12.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,690
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
$30,320
Kept after tax
$26,542
Worth in national money
$28,690
State rank
38
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays physical therapist aides a middle wage of $30,320, 38 of 50 states and about 13.96% 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, physical therapist aides ranks 473. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $30,320 you keep $26,542 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $28,690 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $31,470, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $30,320 median for physical therapist aides places it 38 of 50 states, about 13.96% 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, physical therapist aides ranks 473 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 $26,542 after the full tax stack, from $30,320. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $28,690 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $31,470 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $42,830 |
| This salary | $30,320 |
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 | $26,542 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $26,542 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,376 |
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 | $30,320 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,664 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $30,320 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $21,220 and the ninetieth is $42,830 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $26,542 take-home in Tennessee comes from $30,320. 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 473 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,690, the adjusted value of that $30,320 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 473 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $30,320 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $21,220 to $42,830. 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 $26,542, from $30,320, 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 473 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $28,690 — the adjusted value of that $30,320 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 473 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 $31,470, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $21,220 at the bottom tenth to $42,830 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $28,690 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $26,542 of this wage reaches your account, because Tennessee takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $31,470. 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 ($21,220 to $42,830) 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 $28,690 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 $26,542 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.