Chattanooga, TN-GA Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 91.5) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Chattanooga, TN-GA moved from $45,440 in May 2024 to $46,700 in May 2025 (+2.8%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Chattanooga, TN-GA sits -0.3 pp near that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Waiters and Waitresses shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Chattanooga, TN-GA
Waiters and Waitresses publishes $24,240 here versus $35,230 nationally (-31.2%; 4,790metro-area jobs). Next is Registered Nurses at $79,770 locally versus $97,550 nationally (-18.2%).
- Waiters and Waitresses$24,240 in Chattanooga, TN-GA sits 31.2% below the national Waiters and Waitresses median of $35,230 (4,790 published local jobs).
- Registered Nurses$79,770 in Chattanooga, TN-GA sits 18.2% below the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (6,460 published local jobs).
- Office Clerks, General$37,860 in Chattanooga, TN-GA sits 15.9% below the national Office Clerks, General median of $45,010 (3,920 published local jobs).
- Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants$38,640 in Chattanooga, TN-GA sits 15.9% below the national Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants median of $45,930 (3,590 published local jobs).
Waiters and Waitresses and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Chattanooga, TN-GA; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 16860 · Chattanooga, TN-GA $58K mean
MEAN-LOW · RPP-LOW · OCC-MOST · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-LOW #265/528
- RPP-LOW 91.5
- OCC-MOST 464 occs
- TOP-LEAD Cardiologists · $610K
- EMP-MIX Financial Ma…
- TREND-INLINE -0.3 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Pensacola-Ferry…
- BOOK-FULL 459 rows · May 2025
Read with Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL (+$1 on published-row mean) · Salary vs. cost of living
Instrument codes from this MSA’s OEWS published-row mean, BEA RPP, occupation book, employment lead, All Occupations pay change, and nearest peer — not a moving recommendation.
Published-row mean neighbourhood around Chattanooga, TN-GA
Where Chattanooga, TN-GA already employs the upper wage tier
Financial Managers and Pharmacists lead published employment inside Chattanooga, TN-GA's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Financial Managers 1,280 jobs · $151,530
- 2. Pharmacists 750 jobs · $132,240
- 3. Lawyers 740 jobs · $147,640
- 4. Industrial Production Managers 680 jobs · $121,670
- 5. Administrative Services Managers 670 jobs · $130,540
- 6. Computer and Information Systems Managers 660 jobs · $152,980
- 7. Marketing Managers 460 jobs · $124,360
- 8. Chief Executives 440 jobs · $209,990
- 9. Electrical Engineers 440 jobs · $123,840
- 10. Architectural and Engineering Managers 370 jobs · $163,720
- 11. Physicians, All Other 330 jobs · $429,900
- 12. Human Resources Managers 320 jobs · $129,900
- 13. Dentists, General 190 jobs · $160,620
- 14. Veterinarians 190 jobs · $125,790
- 15. Physician Assistants 180 jobs · $121,600
- 16. Electronics Engineers, Except Computer 110 jobs · $119,180
- 17. Nuclear Engineers 100 jobs · $146,850
- 18. Purchasing Managers 100 jobs · $123,750
Occupations Tracked
464
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$57,906
employment-weighted, 459 complete rows
Top Salary
$610,080
Cardiologists
Cost of Living
91.5
9% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Chattanooga, TN-GA, by employment
Same top-pay sample as the salary ranking, sorted by published local jobs so the title sequence follows the OEWS mix.
| # | Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Financial Managers | $151,530 |
| 2 | Pharmacists | $132,240 |
| 3 | Lawyers | $147,640 |
| 4 | Industrial Production Managers | $121,670 |
| 5 | Administrative Services Managers | $130,540 |
| 6 | Computer and Information Systems Managers | $152,980 |
| 7 | Marketing Managers | $124,360 |
| 8 | Chief Executives | $209,990 |
| 9 | Electrical Engineers | $123,840 |
| 10 | Architectural and Engineering Managers | $163,720 |
| 11 | Physicians, All Other | $429,900 |
| 12 | Human Resources Managers | $129,900 |
| 13 | Dentists, General | $160,620 |
| 14 | Veterinarians | $125,790 |
| 15 | Physician Assistants | $121,600 |
| 16 | Electronics Engineers, Except Computer | $119,180 |
| 17 | Nuclear Engineers | $146,850 |
| 18 | Purchasing Managers | $123,750 |
| 19 | Family Medicine Physicians | $264,690 |
| 20 | General Internal Medicine Physicians | $291,200 |
| 21 | Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors | $133,060 |
| 22 | Optometrists | $126,600 |
| 23 | Cardiologists | $610,080 |
| 24 | Commercial Pilots | $130,630 |
| 25 | Pediatricians, General | $163,320 |
Lowest Paying Jobs in Chattanooga, TN-GA
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Waiters and Waitresses | $24,240 |
| Bartenders | $25,650 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $26,450 |
| Cooks, Fast Food | $26,890 |
| Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers | $27,030 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $27,140 |
| Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary | $27,230 |
| Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan | $27,420 |
| Entertainment Attendants and Related Workers, All Other | $27,480 |
| Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | $27,520 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in TN
Other metropolitan or nonmetropolitan OEWS areas assigned to the same state. Cross-state pay and employment peers live in Nationwide similar metros below.
Nationwide metros with similar published-row mean pay or employment scale
Two OEWS peer sets outside TN. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($57,906 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
Similar employment scale
Nearest headcount peers (floor 100,000 summed published jobs), distinct from the mean-wage column.
Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on BLS OEWS employment-weighted published-row mean wage and summed occupation employment. Employment peers exclude metros already listed in the mean-wage column so the two link sets stay distinct. Mean wage here is not a worker-level median.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Related federal data
Source data and WageDex calculations are identified in context on this page. Occupation rows use BLS OEWS May 2025. The metro benchmark is WageDex's employment-weighted mean of published occupation means; where BEA RPP is available, the price-level figure divides that benchmark by the published area parity. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.