Teacher Salary in Tennessee 2026,
$59,980 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $59,980 a year per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $50,360 and $64,590 and a full range of $48,100 to $76,840. That is 6.2% below the $63,970 national median. The underlying wage row covers elementary school teachers except special education, so treat it as the anchor for classroom pay rather than a figure specific to a single grade band.

Knoxville at $61,980, but only just — Memphis at $61,510, Nashville at $61,460 and Johnson City at $61,330 are all within about six hundred and fifty dollars of it, and only Chattanooga at $59,830 falls clearly behind. Tennessee has the flattest teacher metro spread in this batch, so relocating within the state is a weak salary strategy compared with most places.

Through the Department of Education's Office of Educator Licensure. Tennessee issues a practitioner licence to candidates who complete an approved preparation programme and pass the required assessments, and that advances to a professional licence once the service and professional learning requirements are met. Endorsements determine what and whom you may teach, and the shortage endorsements — special education, mathematics, science, English learners — are the ones that improve your hiring position statewide.

No. Tennessee levies no income tax on earned income and repealed the Hall Tax on investment income in 2021, so a $59,980 salary arrives with only federal tax and payroll deductions taken out. The catch is on the spending side: combined state and local sales tax runs to roughly 9.5% and applies to groceries, which takes back a real share of the advantage at this income level.

Because the state sets a minimum salary that districts must meet, and a great many districts pay at or near it. That floor is what pushes the 10th percentile up to $48,100 and leaves it only a couple of thousand dollars below the 25th at $50,360. The consequence is that the first several years of a Tennessee teaching career are financially flat, and the separation only appears higher up the band, where the 75th percentile of $64,590 and the 90th of $76,840 reflect advanced degrees and senior schedule lanes.

Because the funding formula and the statutory salary minimum compress what districts can differentiate on. In most states the metro table is the story — a suburban district pays fifteen or twenty thousand more than a rural one. In Tennessee, Knoxville at $61,980 and Chattanooga at $59,830 bracket the whole published range, a gap of about two thousand one hundred dollars. That has a practical implication: a Tennessee teacher weighing a move should weigh housing costs, commute and school culture far more heavily than salary, because the salary difference will not decide it.

Two things. First, it annualises a contract that is typically ten months and excludes coaching stipends, summer school and extended contracts, which many Tennessee teachers use to lift actual earnings above the schedule. Second, the wage row is elementary school teachers except special education — a broad occupation code. A secondary teacher, a special education teacher or a pre-kindergarten teacher will sit on a related but not identical schedule, and the figure should be read as the anchor for Tennessee classroom pay rather than a quote for a specific assignment.

Credentials and years, since geography barely moves. An advanced degree shifts you across lanes on almost every Tennessee schedule and is the most reliable step. Shortage-area endorsements improve hiring leverage and open differentiated pay in districts that offer it. Beyond that, the state's strategic compensation provisions let districts pay more for hard-to-staff assignments and leadership roles, and instructional coaching and administration are what reach the $64,590 seventy-fifth percentile and the $76,840 ninetieth. The no-income-tax position is worth adding to any comparison against a Kentucky, Georgia or Virginia offer.