Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,813
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$12,657
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$64,652
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
$72,470
Kept after tax
$59,813
Worth in national money
$64,652
State rank
26
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Tennessee pays this job around $72,470 at the midpoint, 26 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 134 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Tennessee does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $72,470 you keep $59,813, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $64,652 would elsewhere. The average is lower, $65,300, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For stationary engineers and boiler operators the Tennessee median is $72,470, ranking 26 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Stationary engineers and boiler operators ranks 134 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.
- After federal, FICA and Tennessee income tax, retained pay for stationary engineers and boiler operators on $72,470 is $59,813. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $64,652 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 $65,300 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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Pay band: Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $72,470 |
| Top tenth earn over | $93,500 |
| This salary | $72,470 |
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 | $59,813 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $59,813 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,100 |
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 | $72,470 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,283 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Tennessee earn less than $72,470. The published range is $34,360 up to $93,500, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $59,813 take-home in Tennessee comes from $72,470. 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 134 of 491.
- Two cautions on $64,652, the adjusted value of that $72,470 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Tennessee. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 134 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for stationary engineers and boiler operators in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,360 to $93,500. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $59,813, from $72,470, 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 134 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 26 of 51 for it.
- This $64,652 adjusted figure, worked from $72,470, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 134 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 134 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 $65,300, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $34,360 and the top tenth $93,500 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $64,652 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $59,813 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 $65,300. 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 ($34,360) and the ninetieth ($93,500) 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 $64,652 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 $59,813 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.