Statewide pay Government data
Tile setters in Tennessee earn a statewide median of $43,570 a year, 14% below the typical U.S. metro, ranking #43 of 47 states. About 350 people work in the trade statewide.
Statewide pay range
States ranked near Tennessee
See all states on the tile setters nationwide.
Pay by city Government data
BLS publishes tile setter pay for 3 Tennessee metros: Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga.
| Metro | Median pay | Real pay | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| MemphisTENNESSEE · TN | $45,760 | $49,643 | 50 |
| NashvilleTENNESSEE · TN | $44,930 | $46,638 | 140 |
| ChattanoogaTENNESSEE · TN | $36,740 | $40,169 | 40 |
Pay: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (metro-level). Real pay: BEA price parities, 2024. How we calculate
The job (national)
Apply hard tile, stone, and comparable materials to walls, floors, ceilings, countertops, and roof decks.
Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 9.8% from 2025 to 2035, with about 3,300 openings a year. Typical training: long-term on-the-job training.
Nationally, tile setters have 138 injuries or illnesses serious enough to miss work per 10,000 full-time workers, 1.6× the rate for all jobs (87). The most common cause is overexertion and repetitive strain.
What the work is like Government data
How often tile setters deal with each condition, from surveys of workers in the job.
Getting started usually takes some preparation (high school plus months of training).
O*NET 31.0 Work Context and Job Zones (U.S. Department of Labor), national.
Serious injuries & deaths reported to OSHA Government data
Tennessee runs its own workplace-safety program (an OSHA State Plan), so its injury reports aren't in the federal dataset. Nationally, in states federal OSHA covers, tile and terrazzo contractors filed 34 severe injury reports from 2015 to 2024; the most common cause was contact with objects and equipment (74%).
OSHA Severe Injury Reports, January 2015–December 2024 (states under federal OSHA only).
Fatality investigations: OSHA Fatality Inspection Data, events 2015–2024, all states.
Licensing in Tennessee Official source
The main state licensing office in Tennessee is the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors. It can point you to the right license for tile setters.
Official Tennessee licensing site ↗
Requirements for tile setters vary by state and sometimes by city; always confirm with the official agency.
Union membership
In 2025, 4.8% of wage and salary workers in Tennessee were union members, below the U.S. rate of about 10% (#42 of 51 states and D.C.), and 5.7% were covered by a union contract. These figures cover all jobs in the state, not only tile setters.
BLS Union Members, 2025 (Current Population Survey), table 5.
Cities in Tennessee
All trades in Tennessee.