Knoxville, TN Salaries
Highest published occupation medians in Knoxville, TN - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Knoxville, TN moved from $45,460 in May 2024 to $47,080 in May 2025 (+3.6%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Knoxville, TN sits +0.5 pp near that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Managers, All Other shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Knoxville, TN
Managers, All Other publishes $101,930 here versus $141,900 nationally (-28.2%; 2,430metro-area jobs). Next is Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary at $26,960 locally versus $36,780 nationally (-26.7%).
- Managers, All Other$101,930 in Knoxville, TN sits 28.2% below the national Managers, All Other median of $141,900 (2,430 published local jobs).
- Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary$26,960 in Knoxville, TN sits 26.7% below the national Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary median of $36,780 (3,070 published local jobs).
- Registered Nurses$77,240 in Knoxville, TN sits 20.8% below the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (9,500 published local jobs).
- Waiters and Waitresses$28,100 in Knoxville, TN sits 20.2% below the national Waiters and Waitresses median of $35,230 (7,260 published local jobs).
Managers, All Other and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Knoxville, TN; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 28940 · Knoxville, TN $59K mean
MEAN-MID · RPP-LOW · OCC-MOST · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-MID #212/528
- RPP-LOW 92.6
- OCC-MOST 536 occs
- TOP-LEAD Family Medicin… · $460K
- EMP-MIX Financial Ma…
- TREND-INLINE +0.5 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Lewiston-Auburn,…
- BOOK-FULL 528 rows · May 2025
Read with Lewiston-Auburn, ME ($55 on published-row mean) · Highest-paying careers
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 Knoxville, TN
Employment scale inside Knoxville, TN's top-pay list
Financial Managers and Computer and Information Systems Managers lead published employment inside Knoxville, TN's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Financial Managers 2,090 jobs · $133,570
- 2. Computer and Information Systems Managers 1,380 jobs · $143,650
- 3. Pharmacists 990 jobs · $132,460
- 4. Marketing Managers 930 jobs · $131,040
- 5. Physicians, All Other 690 jobs · $276,370
- 6. Architectural and Engineering Managers 610 jobs · $162,950
- 7. Family Medicine Physicians 590 jobs · $460,080
- 8. Human Resources Managers 530 jobs · $132,200
- 9. Chief Executives 510 jobs · $198,890
- 10. Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary 370 jobs · $129,240
- 11. Nuclear Engineers 240 jobs · $179,660
- 12. Nurse Anesthetists 220 jobs · $213,900
- 13. Dentists, General 220 jobs · $157,900
- 14. Purchasing Managers 210 jobs · $139,530
- 15. Natural Sciences Managers 170 jobs · $141,130
- 16. Physicists 120 jobs · $165,010
- 17. General Internal Medicine Physicians 100 jobs · $314,020
- 18. Public Relations Managers 90 jobs · $140,660
Occupations Tracked
536
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$59,351
employment-weighted, 528 complete rows
Top Salary
$460,080
Family Medicine Physicians
Cost of Living
92.6
7% below US avg
Highest Paying Jobs in Knoxville, TN
Lowest Paying Jobs in Knoxville, TN
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | $21,520 |
| Telemarketers | $21,990 |
| School Bus Monitors | $26,680 |
| Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers | $26,920 |
| Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary | $26,960 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $27,250 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $27,280 |
| Cooks, Fast Food | $27,580 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $27,720 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $28,100 |
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 ($59,351 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.