Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,363
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$4,957
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,901
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
$36,320
Kept after tax
$31,363
Worth in national money
$33,901
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $36,320, 38 of 51 states and about 4.8% 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, this job ranks 429. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $36,320 you keep $31,363 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $33,901 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $36,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- Tennessee's $36,320 median for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers places it 38 of 51 states, about 4.8% 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, veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers ranks 429 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.
- Retained pay in Tennessee is $31,363 after the full tax stack, from $36,320. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $33,901 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $36,330 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,230 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $43,700 |
| This salary | $36,320 |
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 | $31,363 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,363 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,626 |
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 | $36,320 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,966 |
| 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 $36,320. The published range is $30,230 up to $43,700, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $31,363 take-home in Tennessee comes from $36,320. 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 429 of 491.
- Two cautions on $33,901, the adjusted value of that $36,320 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 429 of 491 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Tennessee the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $30,230 to $43,700. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $31,363, from $36,320, 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 429 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 51 for it.
- This $33,901 adjusted figure, worked from $36,320, 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 429 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 429 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $30,230 and the top tenth $43,700, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $33,901 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $31,363 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?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($30,230 to $43,700) 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 $33,901 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 $31,363 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.