What Construction Laborers earn in Davidson County, TN
The median pay for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN is $46,190 per year, which works out to $22.21 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metropolitan area, the labor market that Davidson County, TN belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $46,700, which is 1.1% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 9,170 people working in this occupation across the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Davidson County, TN has roughly 715,388 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Construction Laborers in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $36,640 a year ($17.62 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $59,270 or more ($28.50 an hour). That is a gap of $22,630 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $38,840 at the 25th percentile and $50,480 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.6 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN is $22.21. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $46,190, and the same salary is $3,849 a month before taxes or about $1,777 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $18.87 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Construction Laborers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Construction Laborers this way: "Perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers, small mechanical hoists, surveying and measuring equipment, and a variety of other equipment and instruments. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris, and other waste materials. May assist other craft workers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Clean or prepare construction sites to eliminate possible hazards"; "Read plans, instructions, or specifications to determine work activities"; "Signal equipment operators to facilitate alignment, movement, or adjustment of machinery, equipment, or materials"; "Dig ditches or trenches, backfill excavations, or compact and level earth to grade specifications, using picks, shovels, pneumatic tampers, or rakes".
Job outlook for Construction Laborers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 1,489,300 jobs in 2025 to 1,598,600 in 2035, a change of +7.3%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 120,000 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.1% of current employment each year. About 26.9% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $47,120 for this occupation; the Davidson County, TN median of $46,190 is 2.0% below it.
How pay in Davidson County, TN compares
Compared with the Tennessee average
Davidson County, TN pays above the state benchmark. The Tennessee employment-weighted average for Construction Laborers is $44,651; the local median of $46,190 beats it by $1,539, or 3.5%. Within Tennessee, Davidson County, TN already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Construction Laborers is $49,249 across the contiguous United States. At $46,190, Davidson County, TN pays $3,059 less, which is 6.2% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Davidson County, TN
Among the 532 occupations with published wages in Davidson County, TN, Construction Laborers ranks number 398 by median pay, ahead of about 25% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $119,990 a year, which is $73,800 more than the median for Construction Laborers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $46,190 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $6,948 a year, which leaves $39,242, or $3,270 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $15 goes to taxes and $85 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 15.0%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $30,440. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $3,414, an effective 7.4% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,864 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $670. FICA totals $3,534, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Tennessee
There is no state income tax on wages in Tennessee, which means Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN keep the full $39,242 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $2,310 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $192 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Davidson County, TN
IRS Statistics of Income data for Davidson County, TN show an average adjusted gross income of $115,391 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 18.4% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 6.1%, compared with the 7.4% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Davidson County, TN
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Davidson County, TN: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $39,242 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Davidson County, TN is $1,650 a month, or $19,800 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,798 a month. For Construction Laborers, a one-bedroom absorbs 50.5% of take-home pay and 42.9% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 7.4% of gross pay for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Tennessee residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,313 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $421, for $1,733 in total. Gasoline in Tennessee averages $3.08 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,426.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $26,395 a year, 67% of take-home pay. That leaves $12,847 a year, or $1,071 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 27.8% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Davidson County, TN
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Davidson County, TN: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Davidson County, TN, set beside the Tennessee and national medians.
Property taxes in Davidson County, TN
Homeowners in Davidson County, TN pay a median of $2,506 a year in real estate taxes, 74% above the Tennessee median of $1,442 and 20% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $417,400, the median tax bill is 0.60% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Construction Laborers median of $46,190, a tax bill of that size would equal 5.4% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Davidson County, TN
Renters in Davidson County, TN pay a median gross rent of $1,582 a month in the Census survey, 33% above the Tennessee median of $1,189. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,650 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $417,400, 46% above the Tennessee median of $286,700. Median household income is $77,853, 12% above the Tennessee median of $69,595, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 25.4% of that income.
Commuting in Davidson County, TN
Workers in Davidson County, TN who travel to a workplace spend an average of 24.7 minutes each way, 4% below the Tennessee average of 25.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.1 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 20.3% of workers in Davidson County, TN work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Construction Laborers afford to live in Davidson County, TN?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $46,190 that ceiling is $1,155 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,650 is $495 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $31.73 an hour; the median for Construction Laborers is $22.21, which is 30% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $18.87 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 20.2 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,798 a month means $899 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $9,012 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $21,859.
How fast you can save
At $1,071 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 10 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 20 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Construction Laborers pay in Davidson County, TN
What is the hourly wage for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN?
The median is $22.21 per hour, based on $46,190 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $17.62 at the 10th percentile to $28.50 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $46,190 becomes $39,242 a year. That is $3,270 a month, $1,509 every two weeks or $755 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN?
Total taxes are $6,948 a year, an effective rate of 15.0%: $3,414 federal income tax, $3,534 FICA and no Tennessee income tax.
Is pay for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN above the Tennessee average?
Yes. The local median of $46,190 is +3.5% versus the Tennessee average of $44,651, a difference of $1,539 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Construction Laborers salary in Davidson County, TN?
A one-bedroom costs $1,650 a month against take-home pay of $3,270, which is 50.5% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,155 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Construction Laborers in Davidson County, TN?
About $1,071 a month ($12,847 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $26,395 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Davidson County, TN at the 30% guideline?
$31.73 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $19,800 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Construction Laborers is $22.21.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Tennessee rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.