Respiratory Therapist Salary in Tennessee 2026,
$72,140 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $72,140 a year, or $34.68 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $63,660 and $78,640 and a full range of $57,860 to $88,060. That is 12.3% below the $82,280 national median, and Tennessee's 75th percentile still falls below the national median for the occupation.

Clarksville at $79,150, just ahead of Nashville at $78,700, then Chattanooga at $74,350. Memphis at $66,460 and Jackson at $65,310 are a different market entirely — roughly thirteen thousand dollars behind. That internal spread is larger than the gap between Tennessee and the national figure, which makes the metro choice the most consequential one available.

Through the Tennessee Board of Respiratory Care at the Department of Health. You need a degree from a CoARC-accredited respiratory care programme and NBRC credentialing — the CRT as the entry credential, the RRT as the advanced one — followed by the board's licence application and continuing education for renewal. The board also administers the scope provisions under Tennessee's respiratory care practice act.

The licence itself recognises both the CRT and the RRT, but in practice Tennessee hospitals hire at the RRT level and treat it as the standard. The registered credential is what opens critical care, neonatal and transport assignments, and those are the roles sitting at the $78,640 seventy-fifth percentile and above. A therapist entering Tennessee at CRT level should plan on completing the RRT quickly — it is the difference between the bottom and the middle of this band.

Payer mix and hospital finances, mostly. West Tennessee has a higher uninsured and Medicaid share and hospitals under greater financial pressure, which flows directly into wage schedules for clinical staff. Middle Tennessee's hospital sector — the Nashville systems and the Clarksville market drawing on both military and civilian demand — competes harder for the same workforce. The result is Clarksville at $79,150 and Nashville at $78,700 against Memphis at $66,460 and Jackson at $65,310, and it is a durable structural difference rather than a temporary one.

Financially, almost certainly. The difference between Nashville at $78,700 and Jackson at $65,310 is more than thirteen thousand dollars, and Tennessee's absence of an income tax means that whole gap arrives before federal tax only. Nashville's housing costs are the highest in the state and will absorb part of it, but the Clarksville figure of $79,150 is instructive here — it is a lower-cost market paying at the Nashville rate, which makes it arguably the strongest value proposition for a respiratory therapist in Tennessee. Chattanooga at $74,350 is a reasonable middle option.

Differentials. Respiratory therapy is a twenty-four-hour hospital service, and night, weekend, holiday and on-call premiums are a substantial part of what therapists actually earn — they are not captured in a base annual wage median. A Tennessee RRT working a permanent night rotation with weekend coverage earns meaningfully more than $72,140 suggests. The figure also blends acute hospital work with the sleep laboratory, home care and durable medical equipment sector, which pays differently and carries different hours.

Location, credential, unit. Move to Middle Tennessee if you are in the west — the Clarksville and Nashville figures are thirteen thousand dollars ahead of Jackson. Complete the RRT if you hold the CRT, because Tennessee hospitals hire on it. Then specialise: NPS for neonatal and paediatric, ACCS for adult critical care, and ECMO or transport team membership, all of which sit at the $78,640 seventy-fifth percentile and toward the $88,060 ninetieth. Charge therapist and clinical educator roles in the larger Nashville systems are the other route, and shift differentials — untaxed by Tennessee — are worth negotiating explicitly.