Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products in Tennessee

A bright independent shop with household goods on wooden shelves.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$75,276

after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax

Tax takes

$19,174

20.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$81,366

Tennessee costs less than average

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

$94,450

Kept after tax

$75,276

Worth in national money

$81,366

State rank

39

of 49 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $94,450, 39 of 49 states and about 9.98% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
  • This is one of the better-paid jobs in Tennessee. It ranks 62 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $94,450 you keep $75,276 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $81,366 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $109,810, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Tennessee's $94,450 median for sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products places it 39 of 49 states, about 9.98% 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.
  • Within Tennessee, sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products ranks 62 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
  • Retained pay in Tennessee is $75,276 after the full tax stack, from $94,450. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $81,366 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $109,810 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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Pay band: Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$48,570
Half earn under$94,450
Top tenth earn over$181,260
This salary$94,450

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

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Tennessee$75,276
Take-home in Texas$75,276
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$3,902

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

Moving to
$0$99,840
$99,840in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$94,450
Raise you would need+$5,390
Prices in Texas97 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 sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products in Tennessee earn under $94,450 and half over. The published range runs $48,570 at the tenth percentile to $181,260 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $75,276, worked from $94,450. 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 62 of 491.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $81,366, the adjusted value of that $94,450 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 62 of 491 in the state.
  • Figures are distribution medians for sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $48,570 to $181,260; 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.
  • The Tennessee take-home of $75,276, on $94,450 for work ranking 62 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 62 of 491 in the state.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $81,366 — the adjusted value of that $94,450 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 62 of 491 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $109,810 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

Why is the pay range for this job so wide?

One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $48,570, the highest tenth $181,260, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.

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 $81,366.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

Most of it arrives. $75,276 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?

The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.

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 $109,810. 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 ($48,570) and the ninetieth ($181,260) 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 $81,366 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 $75,276 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.