Tennessee · BLS May 2025

How much do speech-language pathologists make in Tennessee?

Speech-language pathologists in Tennessee earn a median of $84,630 a year ($40.69 an hour), about $5,697 a month after federal and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 3,320 of these jobs in Tennessee in May 2025.

Median pay · Tennessee

$84,630A year, or $41 an hour.
Take-home a month$5,697After federal and FICA tax at 19.2%
Worth at national prices$92,119Prices here sit at 91.9 against 100
Against the nation13.5% belowNational median $97,870
What speech-language pathologists earn in Tennessee, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$58,550$28
25th percentile$64,730$31
MedianHalf earn more, half less$84,630$41
75th percentile$101,760$49
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$116,790$56
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$85,050$41

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in TennesseeBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$84,630
  2. Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$40.69
  3. Take-home after federal and FICA tax$5,697 a month at an effective rate of 19.2%.$68,367 a year
  4. Worth at national average pricesPrices in Tennessee sit at 91.9 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$92,119
  5. Against the national medianThe national median is $97,870.13.5% below
  6. Jobs countedA concentration of 0.86 against the nation's 1.00.3,320
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 · Interactive

Estimated on the median salary of $84,630 in Tennessee, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$84,630
$55,000$120,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$84,630
Net 81%
Fed 12%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$68,367After all taxes
Monthly deposit$5,697Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$2,630Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate19.2%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$9,789 / yr
Tennessee state income taxNo state wage tax$0
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$6,474 / yr

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 $84,630 is worth in Tennessee

Prices in Tennessee sit at 91.9 against a national average of 100, so $84,630 earned here buys what $92,119 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 1.22 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 14% less concentrated in Tennessee than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for speech-language pathologists 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 $84,630 median buys roughly what $92,119 would at national prices, $7,489 more.

Even the lowest-paid 10% of speech-language pathologists in Tennessee make at least $58,550 a year.

Common questions

Speech-Language Pathologists pay in Tennessee, answered

How much do speech-language pathologists make in Tennessee?

The median wage for speech-language pathologists in Tennessee is $84,630 a year, or $40.69 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 Speech-Language Pathologists salary in Tennessee?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for speech-language pathologists in Tennessee is $85,050 a year. The median is $84,630.

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 speech-language pathologists in Tennessee?

The median hourly wage is $40.69. At a full-time year that lines up with about $84,630 a year.

BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.

What is the starting salary for speech-language pathologists 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 speech-language pathologists earn under $58,550 a year and a quarter earn under $64,730 ($28.15 and $31.12 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 speech-language pathologists in Tennessee?

The overall salary range for speech-language pathologists in Tennessee spans from $58,550 for the bottom 10% to $116,790 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $64,730 and $101,760 a year, with the overall median at $84,630.

What is the take-home pay for speech-language pathologists in Tennessee?

On the median wage of $84,630, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $68,367 a year, or roughly $5,697 a month.

That is after federal and FICA tax, an effective rate of 19.2%.

Tennessee levies no state income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld for it.

How much does speech-language pathologists make a month in Tennessee?

On the median annual salary of $84,630, estimated take-home pay is roughly $5,697 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 $2,630 net.

Do speech-language pathologists earn more in Tennessee than in the rest of the country?

No. The median in Tennessee is 13.5% below the national median of $97,870.

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 $84,630 a good salary in Tennessee?

It is 1.22 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 $84,630 here buys about what $92,119 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid speech-language pathologists earn in Tennessee?

The top tenth earn $116,790 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $58,550.

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 speech-language pathologists are there in Tennessee?

The survey counted 3,320 of these jobs in Tennessee for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 14% less concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

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