EMT Salary in Tennessee 2026,
$40,330 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $40,330 a year, or $19.39 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 9.3% below the national median of $44,470, but Tennessee takes no state income tax on it. The middle half falls between $36,910 and $48,430 and the full band runs $29,720 to $59,370. On a take-home basis the gap to the national figure narrows considerably.

Morristown at $51,000, ahead of Clarksville $48,480, Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin $47,990, Chattanooga $41,390 and Jackson $39,180. A small East Tennessee market topping the table above the capital region points to employer composition — fire-based and municipal services with public pay scales against private and hospital-based ambulance operations — rather than to any cost-of-living effect.

Through the Tennessee Department of Health's Division of Emergency Medical Services, which operates under the Tennessee EMS Board. Complete an approved EMT course, obtain the required certification and apply to the division for licensure. The division also licenses the ambulance services and sets the state protocols, so the same authority that credentials you governs the service you work for.

No. Tennessee levies no state income tax on earned income, and the Hall tax on investment income was fully repealed in 2021. For an EMT that is unusually valuable, because EMS earnings depend heavily on overtime and shift trades and every additional hour is free of state tax. At the $40,330 median the saving against a five per cent state is around two thousand dollars a year, and more for anyone working toward the $48,430 seventy-fifth percentile.

Yes, and the band shows why. The gap between the $36,910 twenty-fifth percentile and the $48,430 seventy-fifth is largely a credential and employer-type gap rather than an experience one, and advanced licensure is what opens municipal, fire-based and advanced life support roles. Tennessee's Division of Emergency Medical Services administers the licence levels. For anyone intending to stay in Tennessee EMS rather than use it as a stepping stone, advancing the licence is the decision with the clearest published payoff.

Because EMS wages track who runs the ambulance far more than they track local costs. Morristown at $51,000 above Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin at $47,990 is not a statement about East Tennessee living costs; it is a statement about the mix of municipal, fire-based, hospital-based and private employers in each market. Fire-based and municipal services pay on public scales with pension and structured overtime; private ambulance contractors do not. A small market with a strong municipal or fire-based service will out-pay a large market served largely by private contractors every time, and Tennessee's table is a clean illustration of it.

It reports wages as paid, so the overtime that dominates EMS earnings is inside the number — the $19.39 hourly median is the truer basis for comparison. The band from $29,720 to $59,370 mixes private ambulance work at the bottom with fire-service and advanced EMT roles at the top, which are effectively different labour markets. And volunteer and combination services, still a real part of rural Tennessee EMS, are largely invisible to a wage survey.

Employer type first — municipal and fire-based services against private ambulance contractors, which is what the Morristown figure is really measuring. Licence level second: Advanced EMT and then paramedic open the advanced life support assignments and most fire department hiring lists. Overtime third, and Tennessee's lack of an income tax makes those hours unusually efficient. Field training officer and special operations roles fourth. Geography fifth, worth nearly twelve thousand dollars between Morristown and Jackson, though not in the direction most people would guess.