Substitute Teachers, Short-Term in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,883
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$3,617
12.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,977
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
$29,500
Kept after tax
$25,883
Worth in national money
$27,977
State rank
42
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for substitute teachers, short-term is on the low side in Tennessee. The middle earner gets $29,500. That is 42 of 50 states, and about 29.21% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Tennessee publishes, substitute teachers, short-term lands at 479. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Tennessee does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $29,500 you keep $25,883, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $27,977 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $31,740, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For substitute teachers, short-term, Tennessee sits in the lower band at $29,500, ranking 42 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 29.21%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Tennessee, this work ranks 479 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After federal, FICA and Tennessee income tax, retained pay for substitute teachers, short-term on $29,500 is $25,883. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $27,977 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 $31,740 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Substitute Teachers, Short-Term
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,570 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $35,970 |
| This salary | $29,500 |
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 | $25,883 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,883 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,342 |
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 | $29,500 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,623 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $29,500 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $21,570 and the ninetieth is $35,970 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $25,883 take-home in Tennessee comes from $29,500. 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 479 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Tennessee, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $27,977, the adjusted value of that $29,500 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 479 of 491 in the state.
- The Tennessee median of $29,500 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $21,570 to $35,970. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $25,883, from $29,500, 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 479 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Tennessee, so $27,977 — the adjusted value of that $29,500 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 479 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $31,740, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $21,570 at the bottom tenth to $35,970 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $27,977.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $25,883 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 50 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 $31,740. 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 ($21,570 to $35,970) 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 $27,977 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 $25,883 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.