Median pay · Tennessee
$36,000A year, or $17 an hour.| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile1 in 10 earn less | $29,310 | $14 |
| 25th percentile | $30,850 | $15 |
| MedianHalf earn more, half less | $36,000 | $17 |
| 75th percentile | $40,620 | $20 |
| 90th percentile1 in 10 earn more | $51,680 | $25 |
| MeanAll pay divided by all jobs | $38,500 | $19 |
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.$36,000
- Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$17.31
- Take-home after federal and FICA tax$2,592 a month at an effective rate of 13.6%.$31,106 a year
- Worth at national average pricesPrices in Tennessee sit at 91.9 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$39,186
- Against the national medianThe national median is $38,020.5.3% below
- Jobs countedA concentration of 1.02 against the nation's 1.00.27,690
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.
- 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 $36,000 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 $36,000 is worth in Tennessee
Prices in Tennessee sit at 91.9 against a national average of 100, so $36,000 earned here buys what $39,186 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 0.52 times that, on one income.
- How common the job is here. 2% more concentrated in Tennessee than in the country as a whole.
Reading the numbers
What stands out for security guards in Tennessee
Tennessee does not tax wages, so the take-home figure above loses only federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare.
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.
Prices in Tennessee index at 91.9 (U.S. = 100), so the $36,000 median buys roughly what $39,186 would at national prices, $3,186 more.
The top of the pay range is stretched out. Going from the 75th to the 90th percentile adds $11,060, against $4,620 from the median to the 75th. The best-paid 10% of security guards in Tennessee make $51,680 or more.
Common questions
Security Guard pay in Tennessee, answered
How much does a security guard make in Tennessee?
The median wage for security guards in Tennessee is $36,000 a year, or $17.31 an hour.
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 security guard salary in Tennessee?
BLS’s mean (average) wage for security guards in Tennessee is $38,500 a year. The median is $36,000.
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 hourly pay for a security guard in Tennessee?
The median hourly wage is $17.31. At a full-time year that lines up with about $36,000 a year.
BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.
What is the starting salary for a security guard 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 security guards earn under $29,310 a year and a quarter earn under $30,850 ($14.09 and $14.83 an hour).
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 a security guard in Tennessee?
The overall salary range for security guards in Tennessee spans from $29,310 for the bottom 10% to $51,680 for top earners.
The middle 50% earn between $30,850 and $40,620 a year, with the overall median at $36,000.
What is the take-home pay for a security guard in Tennessee?
On the median wage of $36,000, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $31,106 a year, or roughly $2,592 a month.
That is after federal and FICA tax, an effective rate of 13.6%.
Tennessee levies no state income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld for it.
How much does a security guard make a month in Tennessee?
On the median annual salary of $36,000, estimated take-home pay is roughly $2,592 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 $1,196 net.
Do security guards earn more in Tennessee than in the rest of the country?
No. The median in Tennessee is 5.3% below the national median of $38,020.
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 $36,000 a good salary in Tennessee?
It is 0.52 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 $36,000 here buys about what $39,186 buys at national average prices.
What do the highest-paid security guards earn in Tennessee?
The top tenth earn $51,680 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $29,310.
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 security guards are there in Tennessee?
The survey counted 27,690 of these jobs in Tennessee for May 2025.
That makes the occupation 2% more concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.