What Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers earn in Knox County, TN
According to the latest federal wage data for the Knoxville, TN metropolitan area, the median pay for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in Knox County, TN is $59,100 a year, or $28.41 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare (and no state income tax), the paycheck shrinks to $49,615 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Knox County, TN.
The mean wage is $60,210, which is 1.9% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 8,130 people working in this occupation across the Knoxville, TN metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Knox County, TN has roughly 494,148 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in the Knoxville, TN metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $39,670 a year ($19.07 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $79,040 or more ($38.00 an hour). That is a gap of $39,370 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $47,840 at the 25th percentile and $72,930 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.0 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $28.41 an hour or $59,100 a year at the median for Knox County, TN. Before any deductions, that is $4,925 a month, $2,273 every two weeks and $1,137 each week. After taxes the same job pays $23.85 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers this way: "Drive a tractor-trailer combination or a truck with a capacity of at least 26,001 pounds Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW). May be required to unload truck. Requires commercial drivers' license. Includes tow truck drivers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Check vehicles to ensure that mechanical, safety, and emergency equipment is in good working order"; "Maintain logs of working hours or of vehicle service or repair status, following applicable state and federal regulations"; "Obtain receipts or signatures for delivered goods and collect payment for services when required"; "Maneuver trucks into loading or unloading positions, following signals from loading crew and checking that vehicle and loading equipment are properly positioned".
Job outlook for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 2,221,200 jobs in 2025 to 2,305,000 in 2035, a change of +3.8%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 214,500 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 9.7% of current employment each year. About 7.3% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: postsecondary nondegree award. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $58,640 for this occupation; the Knox County, TN median of $59,100 is 0.8% above it.
How pay in Knox County, TN compares
Compared with the Tennessee average
Pay for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in Knox County, TN is in line with the statewide figure: $59,100 locally against an employment-weighted Tennessee average of $58,663, a difference of only $437 (0.8%). Within Tennessee, the highest median we track for this job is $63,070 in Shelby County, TN.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers is $57,851 across the contiguous United States. At $59,100, Knox County, TN pays $1,249 more, which is 2.2% above 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 Knox County, TN
Among the 471 occupations with published wages in Knox County, TN, Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers ranks number 202 by median pay, ahead of about 57% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $104,590 a year, which is $45,490 more than the median for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers earning the Knox County, TN median of $59,100, they add up to $9,485. The result is $49,615 of take-home pay a year ($4,135 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $16 goes to taxes and $84 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 16.1%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $43,350. 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 $4,964, an effective 8.4% 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 $3,664 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $857. FICA totals $4,521, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Tennessee
Tennessee does not tax wage income, so the state income tax line for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in Knox County, TN is $0. That alone leaves more in the paycheck than the same salary would in a state with an income tax. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $2,955 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $246 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Knox County, TN
IRS Statistics of Income data for Knox County, TN show an average adjusted gross income of $110,675 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 16.3% across all filers. Filers in the $50,000 to under $75,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 7.5%, compared with the 8.4% 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 Knox County, TN
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Knox County, TN: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $49,615 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Knox County, TN, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,178 a month ($14,136 a year), and at $1,475 for two bedrooms. For Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers, a one-bedroom absorbs 28.5% of take-home pay and 23.9% 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 5.8% of gross pay for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in Knox 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
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $20,731 a year in Knox County, TN. Subtract that from $49,615 of take-home pay and $28,884 remains, which is $2,407 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 48.9% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Knox County, TN
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Knox 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 Knox County, TN, set beside the Tennessee and national medians.
Property taxes in Knox County, TN
Homeowners in Knox County, TN pay a median of $1,367 a year in real estate taxes, 5% below the Tennessee median of $1,442 and 56% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $320,900, the median tax bill is 0.43% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers median of $59,100, a tax bill of that size would equal 2.3% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Knox County, TN
Renters in Knox County, TN pay a median gross rent of $1,261 a month in the Census survey, 6% 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 $1,178 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 $320,900, 12% above the Tennessee median of $286,700. Median household income is $74,222, 7% above the Tennessee median of $69,595, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.0% of that income.
Commuting in Knox County, TN
Workers in Knox County, TN who travel to a workplace spend an average of 22.2 minutes each way, 14% below the Tennessee average of 25.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 3.7 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 14.4% of workers in Knox County, TN work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers afford to live in Knox 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 $59,100 that ceiling is $1,478 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,178 is $300 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $22.65 an hour; the median for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers is $28.41, which is 25% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $23.85 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 11.4 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,475 a month means $738 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $5,286 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $34,170.
How fast you can save
At $2,407 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 5 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 10 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers pay in Knox County, TN
How much do Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers make per hour in Knox County, TN?
The median is $28.41 per hour, based on $59,100 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $19.07 at the 10th percentile to $38.00 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers take home after taxes in Knox County, TN?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $59,100 becomes $49,615 a year. That is $4,135 a month, $1,908 every two weeks or $954 a week.
How much tax do Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers pay in Knox County, TN?
Total taxes are $9,485 a year, an effective rate of 16.1%: $4,964 federal income tax, $4,521 FICA and no Tennessee income tax.
Do Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers earn more in Knox County, TN than elsewhere in Tennessee?
It is about the same. The local median of $59,100 is within 0.8% of the Tennessee average of $58,663.
Can Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers afford a one-bedroom apartment in Knox County, TN?
A one-bedroom costs $1,178 a month against take-home pay of $4,135, which is 28.5% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,478 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in Knox County, TN?
About $2,407 a month ($28,884 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $20,731 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Knox County, TN at the 30% guideline?
$22.65 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $14,136 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers is $28.41.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Knoxville, 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.