Slaughterers and Meat Packers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,937
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,853
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,440
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
$35,790
Kept after tax
$30,937
Worth in national money
$33,440
State rank
41
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays slaughterers and meat packers a middle wage of $35,790, 41 of 47 states and about 10.81% 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, slaughterers and meat packers ranks 436. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $35,790 the take-home is $30,937; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $33,440 would nationally. The average comes to $37,270, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Tennessee's $35,790 median for slaughterers and meat packers places it 41 of 47 states, about 10.81% 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, slaughterers and meat packers ranks 436 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 slaughterers and meat packers in Tennessee, on $35,790, is $30,937 — equivalent to $33,440 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 $37,270 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Slaughterers and Meat Packers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,790 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,880 |
| This salary | $35,790 |
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 | $30,937 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,937 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,604 |
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 | $35,790 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,939 |
| 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 slaughterers and meat packers in Tennessee earn under $35,790 and half over. The published range runs $29,770 at the tenth percentile to $46,880 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $30,937 take-home in Tennessee comes from $35,790. 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 436 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $33,440 uses one figure for the whole of Tennessee. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 436.
- Figures are distribution medians for slaughterers and meat packers in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $29,770 to $46,880; 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 $30,937, from $35,790, 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 436 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 47 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $33,440, worked from $35,790, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Tennessee address, on work sitting at 436 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 $37,270, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $29,770 at the tenth percentile, $46,880 at the ninetieth.
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 $33,440 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $30,937 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 47 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 $37,270. 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 ($29,770 to $46,880) 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 $33,440 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 $30,937 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.