What Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants earn in Fayette County, TN
The median pay for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Fayette County, TN is $39,940 per year, which works out to $19.20 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 Fayette 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 $43,290, which is 8.4% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,180 people working in this occupation across the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Fayette County, TN has roughly 43,267 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $34,050 a year ($16.37 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $58,110 or more ($27.94 an hour). That is a gap of $24,060 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $36,650 at the 25th percentile and $46,960 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.7 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: $19.20 an hour or $39,940 a year at the median for Fayette County, TN. Before any deductions, that is $3,328 a month, $1,536 every two weeks and $768 each week. After taxes the same job pays $16.45 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants this way: "Perform secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic, or laboratory procedures. Duties may include scheduling appointments, billing patients, and compiling and recording medical charts, reports, and correspondence."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Schedule and confirm patient diagnostic appointments, surgeries, or medical consultations"; "Answer telephones and direct calls to appropriate staff"; "Receive and route messages or documents, such as laboratory results, to appropriate staff"; "Greet visitors, ascertain purpose of visit, and direct them to appropriate staff".
Job outlook for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 979,000 jobs in 2025 to 1,026,100 in 2035, a change of +4.8%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 89,200 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 9.1% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: moderate-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $45,930 for this occupation; the Fayette County, TN median of $39,940 is 13.0% below it.
How pay in Fayette County, TN compares
Compared with the Tennessee average
Pay in Fayette County, TN runs $620 below the Tennessee average of $40,560, a gap of 1.5%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Tennessee would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Tennessee, the highest median we track for this job is $45,570 in Davidson County, TN.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants is $45,555 across the contiguous United States. At $39,940, Fayette County, TN pays $5,615 less, which is 12.3% 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 Fayette County, TN
Among the 502 occupations with published wages in Fayette County, TN, Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants ranks number 393 by median pay, ahead of about 22% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $102,510 a year, which is $62,570 more than the median for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants.
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 Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants earning the Fayette County, TN median of $39,940, they add up to $5,720. The result is $34,220 of take-home pay a year ($2,852 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $14 goes to taxes and $86 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 14.3%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $24,190. 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 $2,664, an effective 6.7% 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 $2,476 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $579. FICA totals $3,055, 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 Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Fayette 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 $1,997 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $166 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Fayette County, TN
IRS Statistics of Income data for Fayette County, TN show an average adjusted gross income of $94,436 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 14.3% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.9%, compared with the 6.7% 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 Fayette County, TN
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Fayette County, TN: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $34,220 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Fayette County, TN, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,191 a month ($14,292 a year), and at $1,301 for two bedrooms. For Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, a one-bedroom absorbs 41.8% of take-home pay and 35.8% 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 8.6% of gross pay for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Fayette 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 $20,887 a year in Fayette County, TN. Subtract that from $34,220 of take-home pay and $13,333 remains, which is $1,111 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 33.4% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Fayette County, TN
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Fayette 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 Fayette County, TN, set beside the Tennessee and national medians.
Property taxes in Fayette County, TN
Homeowners in Fayette County, TN pay a median of $1,140 a year in real estate taxes, 21% below the Tennessee median of $1,442 and 63% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $340,800, the median tax bill is 0.33% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants median of $39,940, a tax bill of that size would equal 2.9% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Fayette County, TN
Renters in Fayette County, TN pay a median gross rent of $902 a month in the Census survey, 24% below 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 $340,800, 19% above the Tennessee median of $286,700. Median household income is $88,456, 27% above the Tennessee median of $69,595, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 16.2% of that income.
Commuting in Fayette County, TN
Workers in Fayette County, TN who travel to a workplace spend an average of 34.1 minutes each way, 33% above the Tennessee average of 25.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.7 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 12.0% of workers in Fayette County, TN work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants afford to live in Fayette 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 $39,940 that ceiling is $999 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,191 is $193 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 Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants is $19.20, which is 16% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $16.45 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 16.7 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 $19,819.
How fast you can save
At $1,111 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 Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants pay in Fayette County, TN
How much do Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants make per hour in Fayette County, TN?
The median is $19.20 per hour, based on $39,940 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $16.37 at the 10th percentile to $27.94 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants take home after taxes in Fayette County, TN?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $39,940 becomes $34,220 a year. That is $2,852 a month, $1,316 every two weeks or $658 a week.
How much tax do Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants pay in Fayette County, TN?
Total taxes are $5,720 a year, an effective rate of 14.3%: $2,664 federal income tax, $3,055 FICA and no Tennessee income tax.
Do Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants earn more in Fayette County, TN than elsewhere in Tennessee?
No. The local median of $39,940 is -1.5% versus the Tennessee average of $40,560, a difference of $620 a year.
Can Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants afford a one-bedroom apartment in Fayette County, TN?
A one-bedroom costs $1,191 a month against take-home pay of $2,852, which is 41.8% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $999 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Fayette County, TN?
About $1,111 a month ($13,333 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 Fayette 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 Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants is $19.20.
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.