Phlebotomist Salary in Tennessee
Tennessee pays a BLS mean of $40,880 per year ($19.66 per hour) for phlebotomy, about $4,640 below the national mean of $45,520. On the headline number, Tennessee is a below-average state for the occupation. Two things soften that: the state charges no income tax on wages, and its cost of living runs about 8 percent below the national average, so take-home pay stretches further than the nominal wage implies. Middle Tennessee is also a genuine healthcare-industry hub, which pushes Nashville-metro pay to the top of the state range. This page covers Tennessee's metro wage structure, the full pay ladder, the no-income-tax math, and the dominant employers.
Where Tennessee ranks
Tennessee's $40,880 state mean sits in the bottom third of states for phlebotomist pay, roughly $4,640 below the national mean and about $15,700 below top-paying California. Adjusting for cost of living does not rescue the ranking the way it does for some low-nominal states: dividing the state mean by Tennessee's BEA Regional Price Parity of 91.9 gives about $44,480 in national-average purchasing power, which still ranks in the high-30s among all states. Tennessee is not a high-pay state for phlebotomy in either nominal or real terms.
What genuinely moves the needle is the tax side. Tennessee is one of a handful of states with no income tax on wages, so a phlebotomist keeps more of each paycheck than a same-wage worker in a state that taxes income at 4 to 6 percent. That does not appear in the BLS gross-wage figure at all, which is why the take-home comparison below matters more in Tennessee than the headline mean.
Pay by Tennessee metro
Wages track the state's healthcare geography. Nashville pays a clear premium, reflecting the density of hospital systems and healthcare-company headquarters in Middle Tennessee. Memphis sits in the middle, and the East Tennessee markets of Knoxville and Chattanooga round out the bottom. Together these four metros hold the large majority of the state's phlebotomy jobs.
| Metro | Employment | Annual mean | Annual median | Hourly mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville | 1,020 | $43,770 | $44,240 | $21.04 |
| Memphis | 640 | $41,070 | $39,480 | $19.74 |
| Knoxville | 490 | $40,140 | $38,090 | $19.30 |
| Chattanooga | 270 | $39,690 | $37,350 | $19.08 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (SOC 31-9097), metropolitan area estimates. Metro names shortened; Nashville is the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin metropolitan area.
The full Tennessee pay ladder
The state mean hides a wide spread. An entry-level phlebotomist near the 10th percentile earns about $35,010, while an experienced worker at the 90th percentile reaches roughly $47,630, a gap of more than $12,000. The percentile ladder below shows where a given wage falls within the Tennessee workforce.
| Percentile | Hourly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $16.83 | $35,010 |
| 25th percentile | $17.46 | $36,310 |
| Median (50th) | $18.53 | $38,550 |
| 75th percentile | $21.94 | $45,630 |
| 90th percentile | $22.90 | $47,630 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (SOC 31-9097), Tennessee state estimates, cross-industry.
Take-home math: no income tax, low cost of living
Tennessee's below-average nominal wage tells only part of the story. The state levies no income tax on wages, salaries or business income. The last remaining individual tax, the Hall tax on interest and dividends, phased down from 6 percent in the mid-2010s to zero and was fully repealed for tax years beginning January 1, 2021. A phlebotomist earning the $40,880 state mean therefore pays no state income tax at all, keeping roughly $1,600 to $2,500 a year that a same-wage worker would forfeit in a state with a 4 to 6 percent income tax.
Cost of living reinforces the effect. Tennessee's BEA Regional Price Parity is 91.9 for 2024, meaning prices run about 8 percent below the national average, so the $40,880 mean carries roughly $44,480 in national-average purchasing power. The trade-off is that Tennessee leans on sales tax to replace the missing income tax: the state rate is 7 percent, and combined state-plus-local rates commonly reach 9.25 to 9.75 percent, among the highest in the country. For a phlebotomist who saves a meaningful share of income, the no-income-tax advantage outweighs the high sales tax; for one who spends nearly all of each paycheck on taxable goods, the two roughly offset.
The net picture is a modest but honest one: gross pay is below the national average, but the tax and cost-of-living profile means take-home pay is closer to the middle of the pack than the $40,880 headline suggests. Where you live inside the state still matters, since Nashville pays a clear premium over Knoxville and Chattanooga while also carrying a higher housing cost.
Major Tennessee employers
Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the largest single healthcare employer in the state and the academic anchor in Nashville, paying at the top of the local range for hospital, blood bank and oncology draw roles. HCA Healthcare is headquartered in Nashville and runs the TriStar Health hospital network across Middle Tennessee, and Ascension Saint Thomas operates a large Nashville-area system of hospitals and clinics. The concentration of hospital systems and healthcare-company head offices in the metro is what lifts Nashville pay above the rest of the state.
Memphis and West Tennessee. Baptist Memorial Health Care and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare are the two dominant systems in Memphis, with Regional One Health as the public safety-net hospital and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as a major specialty employer. These systems set pay a step below Nashville while hiring steadily across the metro.
East Tennessee. Covenant Health and the University of Tennessee Medical Center anchor Knoxville, while Erlanger Health and CHI Memorial serve Chattanooga. These regional networks pay at the lower end of the state range, consistent with the metro wage figures above.
Reference labs, blood centers, and plasma. Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp operate patient service centers statewide, and hospital and reference labs run their own draw stations. The American Red Cross and Blood Assurance hire apheresis and donor-collection phlebotomists, and CSL Plasma, Grifols and BioLife run donor-collection centers that hire high-volume phlebotomists and often train from zero.
Licensure and credentials
Tennessee does not require a state phlebotomy license or state certification. Unlike California, Washington, Nevada and Louisiana, which regulate the role at the state level, Tennessee lets employers set their own credential requirements. In practice, nearly all hospitals and reference labs prefer or require a national certification.
The accepted national credentials are ASCP PBT (American Society for Clinical Pathology), NHA CPT (National Healthcareer Association), AMT RPT (American Medical Technologists), and NCCT NCPT (National Center for Competency Testing). Academic and large systems such as Vanderbilt, HCA's TriStar hospitals and Ascension Saint Thomas tend to prefer ASCP PBT for blood bank and oncology placements at hire, while community hospitals, physician offices, and plasma centers accept any of the major credentials and often train and certify from zero.
Frequently asked questions
How much do phlebotomists make in Tennessee?
Tennessee reports a BLS OEWS May 2025 state mean of $40,880 per year ($19.66 per hour), about $4,640 below the national mean of $45,520. The state median is $38,550 ($18.53 per hour), and the middle half of Tennessee phlebotomists earn between roughly $36,310 and $45,630. Pay is highest in the Nashville metro, where the mean reaches $43,770, and lowest in the Chattanooga and Knoxville markets. Tennessee employed about 3,520 phlebotomists in May 2025.
Does Tennessee require a phlebotomy license?
No. Tennessee does not require a state-level phlebotomy license or state certification to draw blood, unlike California, Washington, Nevada and Louisiana, which regulate the role at the state level. National credentials (ASCP PBT, NHA CPT, AMT RPT, NCCT NCPT) are accepted or preferred at nearly all Tennessee employers. Large systems such as Vanderbilt University Medical Center, HCA Healthcare's TriStar hospitals and Ascension Saint Thomas follow the national credential preference patterns, with hospital blood banks and oncology units typically preferring ASCP PBT at hire.
Does Tennessee's lack of a state income tax help phlebotomists?
Yes, materially. Tennessee levies no state income tax on wages. The last remaining individual income tax, the Hall tax on interest and dividends, was fully repealed for tax years beginning January 1, 2021, so a phlebotomist keeps every dollar of gross pay that a worker in a state with a 4 to 6 percent income tax would lose. On the $40,880 state mean, that is roughly $1,600 to $2,500 a year in retained pay compared with a similarly-paid job in a typical income-tax state. Combined with a cost of living about 8 percent below the national average, the low nominal wage stretches further than the headline figure suggests.
Where in Tennessee do phlebotomists earn the most?
The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin metro pays the most, with a BLS mean of $43,770 per year ($21.04 per hour) and a median of $44,240, reflecting the concentration of hospital systems and healthcare-company headquarters in Middle Tennessee. Memphis follows at a $41,070 mean, then Knoxville at $40,140 and Chattanooga at $39,690. Nashville alone employed about 1,020 phlebotomists in May 2025, roughly 29 percent of the statewide total.
Who are the largest phlebotomy employers in Tennessee?
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the largest single healthcare employer in the state and the academic anchor in Nashville. HCA Healthcare is headquartered in Nashville and runs the TriStar Health hospital network across Middle Tennessee, and Ascension Saint Thomas operates a large Nashville-area system. In Memphis, Baptist Memorial Health Care and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare are the dominant systems, with Regional One Health as the public safety-net hospital. Covenant Health and the University of Tennessee Medical Center anchor Knoxville, and Erlanger Health and CHI Memorial serve Chattanooga. Reference-lab and donor employers include Quest Diagnostics, Labcorp, the American Red Cross, and CSL Plasma, Grifols and BioLife plasma-collection centers.