Nurse Practitioner Salary in Tennessee 2026,
$117,590 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $117,590 a year, or $56.54 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 11.1% below the national median of $132,300, though Tennessee takes no state income tax on it. The middle half falls between $102,640 and $130,330 and the full band runs $82,790 to $137,880. On a take-home basis the gap to the national figure is materially smaller than the gross comparison implies.

Memphis at $124,600, ahead of Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin $122,320, Kingsport-Bristol $118,470, Chattanooga $116,480 and Clarksville $115,160. About nine thousand dollars separates the whole table, so all five major Tennessee markets pay within a narrow range and the choice between them turns on housing costs and practice type rather than on salary.

No. Tennessee requires nurse practitioners to prescribe under a collaborative arrangement with a physician, involving a written protocol and chart review, rather than granting full independent practice authority. The Board of Nursing issues the certificate of fitness to prescribe on the basis of a graduate nursing degree and national certification. The practical consequence is that where you can practise depends on securing and maintaining that physician relationship, which is a real constraint in the rural counties with the greatest need.

Substantially. Tennessee levies no state income tax on earned income and fully repealed the Hall tax on investment income in 2021. At the $117,590 median that is worth several thousand dollars a year relative to a state charging five per cent, and more at the $130,330 seventy-fifth percentile. It recovers a meaningful share of the 11.1% nominal gap to the national median, and it applies to savings and retirement income too. The high combined sales tax is the offset, though it matters proportionally less at this income.

Because the 90th percentile of $137,880 sits only about fifty-six hundred dollars above the national median of $132,300, which means Tennessee offers less upside than the national distribution does. The likely explanations are the collaborative practice requirement, which limits the independent and ownership models that produce high earnings elsewhere, and the sheer scale of the state's nurse practitioner workforce at 1.78 times national concentration — a deep supply moderates the premiums that scarcity creates in other states.

Tennessee employs nurse practitioners at nearly twice the national rate per worker while requiring each of them to prescribe under a collaborative physician arrangement. Those two facts pull against each other. The state clearly depends on advanced practice nursing to deliver primary care across counties where physicians are scarce, and the collaborative requirement means every one of those practices needs a physician relationship to function — which in the most underserved areas is exactly what is hardest to secure. For an individual nurse practitioner the consequence is that the collaborative agreement is a material term of employment, not a formality, and its terms should be read as carefully as the salary.

It covers every population focus in one code — family, psychiatric mental health, acute care, neonatal — which pay differently, with psychiatric practice generally well above the median. It excludes productivity bonuses and call stipends, which are a real part of advanced practice compensation. The 10th percentile of $82,790 reflects part-time and early-career positions rather than a full-time entry rate. And with about 12,150 nurse practitioners statewide the sample is large but blends retail clinic, primary care, hospital and specialty settings.

Population focus first: psychiatric mental health practice commands a clear premium, and acute and critical care follow. Setting second — hospital and specialty practice above retail and urgent care clinic work. Lead advanced practice provider and clinical management roles third, which is what the $130,330 seventy-fifth percentile and $137,880 ninetieth describe. Geography contributes about nine thousand dollars across five metros, less than in most states. And the collaborative arrangement itself matters, because the terms of the physician relationship determine what you can actually deliver and therefore what you can be paid for.