Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,724
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,556
13.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,129
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
$34,280
Kept after tax
$29,724
Worth in national money
$32,129
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $34,280, 42 of 51 states and about 10.12% 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 450. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Tennessee does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $34,280 you keep $29,724, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $32,129 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $41,170, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Tennessee's $34,280 median for preschool teachers, except special education places it 42 of 51 states, about 10.12% 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, preschool teachers, except special education ranks 450 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.
- After federal, FICA and Tennessee income tax, retained pay for preschool teachers, except special education on $34,280 is $29,724. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $32,129 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $41,170 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,160 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,280 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,480 |
| This salary | $34,280 |
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 | $29,724 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,724 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,541 |
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 | $34,280 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,863 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $34,280 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $27,160 and the ninetieth is $64,480 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $29,724 take-home in Tennessee comes from $34,280. 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 450 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $32,129, the adjusted value of that $34,280 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 450 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $34,280 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $27,160 to $64,480. 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 $29,724, from $34,280, 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 450 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $32,129 — the adjusted value of that $34,280 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 450 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 $41,170, 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 $27,160, the highest tenth $64,480, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $32,129 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $29,724 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.
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 $41,170. 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 ($27,160) and the ninetieth ($64,480) 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 $32,129 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 $29,724 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.