Real Estate Sales Agents in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,342
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$6,908
14.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,525
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
$46,250
Kept after tax
$39,342
Worth in national money
$42,525
State rank
39
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Tennessee is among the lower-paying states for real estate sales agents. The middle earner takes $46,250, ranking 39 of 48 states — about 12.46% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 332 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 $46,250 you keep $39,342 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $42,525 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $57,350, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee ranks 39 of 48 for real estate sales agents, with a median of $46,250 — about 12.46% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Real estate sales agents ranks 332 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 $39,342 after the full tax stack, from $46,250. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $42,525 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $57,350 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Real Estate Sales Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,160 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,250 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,010 |
| This salary | $46,250 |
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 | $39,342 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,342 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,039 |
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 | $46,250 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,466 |
| 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 real estate sales agents in Tennessee earn under $46,250 and half over. The published range runs $32,160 at the tenth percentile to $92,010 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $39,342 take-home in Tennessee comes from $46,250. 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 332 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $42,525, the adjusted value of that $46,250 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 332 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for real estate sales agents in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $32,160 to $92,010; 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 $39,342, from $46,250, 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 332 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 39 of 48 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $42,525 — the adjusted value of that $46,250 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 332 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 $57,350, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $32,160, the highest tenth $92,010, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Tennessee sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $42,525 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $39,342 survives, because Tennessee levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 48 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 $57,350. 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 ($32,160) and the ninetieth ($92,010) 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 $42,525 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 $39,342 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.