What Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators earn in Shelby County, TN
The median pay for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN is $44,540 per year, which works out to $21.41 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area, the labor market that Shelby 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 $44,810, which is 0.6% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 7,950 people working in this occupation across the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Shelby County, TN has roughly 919,173 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $36,810 a year ($17.70 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $52,000 or more ($25.00 an hour). That is a gap of $15,190 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $38,400 at the 25th percentile and $48,410 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.4 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 Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN is $21.41. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $44,540, and the same salary is $3,712 a month before taxes or about $1,713 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $18.23 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators this way: "Operate industrial trucks or tractors equipped to move materials around a warehouse, storage yard, factory, construction site, or similar location."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Move controls to drive gasoline- or electric-powered trucks, cars, or tractors and transport materials between loading, processing, and storage areas"; "Move levers or controls that operate lifting devices, such as forklifts, lift beams with swivel-hooks, hoists, or elevating platforms, to load, unload, transport, or stack material"; "Position lifting devices under, over, or around loaded pallets, skids, or boxes and secure material or products for transport to designated areas"; "Inspect product load for accuracy and safely move it around the warehouse or facility to ensure timely and complete delivery".
Job outlook for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 765,200 jobs in 2025 to 776,300 in 2035, a change of +1.5%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 64,700 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.5% of current employment each year.
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 $46,420 for this occupation; the Shelby County, TN median of $44,540 is 4.0% below it.
How pay in Shelby County, TN compares
Compared with the Tennessee average
Shelby County, TN pays above the state benchmark. The Tennessee employment-weighted average for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators is $43,533; the local median of $44,540 beats it by $1,007, or 2.3%. Within Tennessee, Shelby County, TN already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators is $46,731 across the contiguous United States. At $44,540, Shelby County, TN pays $2,191 less, which is 4.7% 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 Shelby County, TN
Among the 502 occupations with published wages in Shelby County, TN, Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators ranks number 362 by median pay, ahead of about 28% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $102,510 a year, which is $57,970 more than the median for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $44,540 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 $6,624 a year, which leaves $37,916, or $3,160 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 14.9%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $28,790. 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 $3,216, an effective 7.2% 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 $2,761 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $646. FICA totals $3,407, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Tennessee
There is no state income tax on wages in Tennessee, which means Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN keep the full $37,916 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $2,227 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $186 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Shelby County, TN
IRS Statistics of Income data for Shelby County, TN show an average adjusted gross income of $81,297 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 14.7% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.4%, compared with the 7.2% 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 Shelby County, TN
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Shelby County, TN: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $37,916 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Shelby County, TN is $1,191 a month, or $14,292 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,301 a month. For Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators, a one-bedroom absorbs 37.7% of take-home pay and 32.1% 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 7.7% of gross pay for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby 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 $20,887 a year, 55% of take-home pay. That leaves $17,029 a year, or $1,419 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 38.2% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Shelby County, TN
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Shelby 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 Shelby County, TN, set beside the Tennessee and national medians.
Property taxes in Shelby County, TN
Homeowners in Shelby County, TN pay a median of $2,429 a year in real estate taxes, 68% above the Tennessee median of $1,442 and 22% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $249,100, the median tax bill is 0.98% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators median of $44,540, a tax bill of that size would equal 5.5% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Shelby County, TN
Renters in Shelby County, TN pay a median gross rent of $1,232 a month in the Census survey, 4% 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 $1,191 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 $249,100, 13% below the Tennessee median of $286,700. Median household income is $63,767, 8% below the Tennessee median of $69,595, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 22.4% of that income.
Commuting in Shelby County, TN
Workers in Shelby County, TN who travel to a workplace spend an average of 22.3 minutes each way, 13% 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. 10.8% of workers in Shelby County, TN work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators afford to live in Shelby 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 $44,540 that ceiling is $1,114 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,191 is $78 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $22.90 an hour; the median for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators is $21.41, which is 7% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $18.23 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 15.1 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,301 a month means $651 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,486 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $23,515.
How fast you can save
At $1,419 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 8 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 16 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators pay in Shelby County, TN
What is the hourly wage for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN?
The median is $21.41 per hour, based on $44,540 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $17.70 at the 10th percentile to $25.00 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $44,540 becomes $37,916 a year. That is $3,160 a month, $1,458 every two weeks or $729 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN?
Total taxes are $6,624 a year, an effective rate of 14.9%: $3,216 federal income tax, $3,407 FICA and no Tennessee income tax.
Is pay for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN above the Tennessee average?
Yes. The local median of $44,540 is +2.3% versus the Tennessee average of $43,533, a difference of $1,007 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators salary in Shelby County, TN?
A one-bedroom costs $1,191 a month against take-home pay of $3,160, which is 37.7% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,114 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators in Shelby County, TN?
About $1,419 a month ($17,029 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $20,887 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Shelby County, TN at the 30% guideline?
$22.90 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $14,292 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators is $21.41.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Memphis, TN-MS-AR 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.