Security Guards in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,106
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,894
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,623
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
$36,000
Kept after tax
$31,106
Worth in national money
$33,623
State rank
39
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays security guards a middle wage of $36,000, 39 of 51 states and about 5.31% 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, security guards ranks 433. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $36,000 the take-home is $31,106; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $33,623 would nationally. The average comes to $38,500, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Tennessee's $36,000 median for security guards places it 39 of 51 states, about 5.31% 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, security guards ranks 433 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.
- Post-tax income for security guards in Tennessee, on $36,000, is $31,106 — equivalent to $33,623 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 $38,500 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Security Guards
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,310 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $51,680 |
| This salary | $36,000 |
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 | $31,106 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,106 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,612 |
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 | $36,000 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,950 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $36,000 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,310 and the ninetieth is $51,680 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Tennessee's $31,106, worked from $36,000. 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 433 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $33,623, the adjusted value of that $36,000 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 433 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $36,000 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,310 to $51,680. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Tennessee take-home of $31,106, on $36,000 for work ranking 433 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 433 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $33,623 — the adjusted value of that $36,000 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 433 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 $38,500 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $29,310 at the bottom tenth to $51,680 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $33,623 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $31,106 survives, because Tennessee levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $38,500. 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 ($29,310 to $51,680) 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 $33,623 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 $31,106 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.