Median pay · Tennessee
$117,480A year. BLS publishes no hourly wage for this occupation.| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile1 in 10 earn less | $54,740 | Not published |
| 25th percentile | $82,770 | Not published |
| MedianHalf earn more, half less | $117,480 | Not published |
| 75th percentile | $169,920 | Not published |
| 90th percentile1 in 10 earn more | $204,650 | Not published |
| MeanAll pay divided by all jobs | $126,190 | Not published |
Wage survey · BLS May 2025
How we got this
- Median wage in TennesseeBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$117,480
- Take-home after federal and FICA tax$7,623 a month at an effective rate of 22.1%.$91,477 a year
- Worth at national average pricesPrices in Tennessee sit at 91.9 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$127,876
- Against the national medianThe national median is $123,220.4.7% below
- Jobs countedA concentration of 1.03 against the nation's 1.00.1,030
What we assumed
- Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
- OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
- Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
- BLS publishes only an annual wage for this occupation, because a standard 2,080-hour year would misdescribe it.
- Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details
Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1
What lands in the bank
Tax year 2026 · InteractiveEstimated on the median salary of $117,480 in Tennessee, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.
Run the numbers on your own pay
Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.
What $117,480 is worth in Tennessee
Prices in Tennessee sit at 91.9 against a national average of 100, so $117,480 earned here buys what $127,876 buys at national average prices.
- Rents. 79.1 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
- Against local households. The median household in Tennessee takes in $69,595, so this occupation's median is 1.69 times that, on one income.
- How common the job is here. 3% more concentrated in Tennessee than in the country as a whole.
Reading the numbers
What stands out for commercial pilots in Tennessee
Tennessee does not tax wages, so the take-home figure above loses only federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare.
One median paycheck here is 1.7 times the median household income in Tennessee ($69,595), a figure that counts every earner in the home.
Rents in Tennessee index at 79.1 (U.S. = 100) while prices overall index at 91.9, a gap of -12.8 pts. For a renter, housing moves the local cost of living more than anything else.
The gap between the ends is wide: the 90th percentile ($204,650) is 3.7 times the 10th ($54,740). The survey does not say who sits where in that range. It records no experience, shift or employer.
Common questions
Commercial Pilots pay in Tennessee, answered
How much do commercial pilots make in Tennessee?
The median wage for commercial pilots in Tennessee is $117,480 a year.
Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.
What is the average Commercial Pilots salary in Tennessee?
BLS’s mean (average) wage for commercial pilots in Tennessee is $126,190 a year. The median is $117,480.
The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.
What is the starting salary for commercial pilots in Tennessee?
BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Tennessee, the lowest-paid 10% of commercial pilots earn under $54,740 a year and a quarter earn under $82,770.
New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.
What is the salary range for commercial pilots in Tennessee?
The overall salary range for commercial pilots in Tennessee spans from $54,740 for the bottom 10% to $204,650 for top earners.
The middle 50% earn between $82,770 and $169,920 a year, with the overall median at $117,480.
What is the take-home pay for commercial pilots in Tennessee?
On the median wage of $117,480, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $91,477 a year, or roughly $7,623 a month.
That is after federal and FICA tax, an effective rate of 22.1%.
Tennessee levies no state income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld for it.
How much does commercial pilots make a month in Tennessee?
On the median annual salary of $117,480, estimated take-home pay is roughly $7,623 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.
For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $3,518 net.
Do commercial pilots earn more in Tennessee than in the rest of the country?
No. The median in Tennessee is 4.7% below the national median of $123,220.
Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Tennessee sit at 91.9 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.
Is $117,480 a good salary in Tennessee?
It is 1.69 times the median household income of $69,595. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.
Prices in Tennessee run at 91.9 against a national average of 100, with rents at 79.1, so $117,480 here buys about what $127,876 buys at national average prices.
What do the highest-paid commercial pilots earn in Tennessee?
The top tenth earn $204,650 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $54,740.
Experience, specialty, employer and the part of Tennessee someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.
How many commercial pilots are there in Tennessee?
The survey counted 1,030 of these jobs in Tennessee for May 2025.
That makes the occupation 3% more concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.