How much do drywall installers make in Tennessee in 2026?

The median drywall installer in Tennessee earns $47,510 a year, which works out to $22.84 an hour based on a 2,080-hour work year. That's the midpoint — half of installers in the state earn more, half earn less. If you're just starting out or working lower-volume residential jobs, the 25th percentile sits at $39,470 annually ($18.98/hr). Experienced hands on commercial or multi-family projects tend to land at the 75th percentile: $56,540 a year, or $27.18 an hour. All figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.

The spread between the bottom quarter and top quarter is $17,070 a year. That gap isn't random — it reflects real differences in experience, the type of work you're doing, and where in Tennessee you're located. A first-year installer hanging board on tract houses in a smaller market is going to land closer to $39,470. A finisher with ten years in who tapes and coats commercial interiors in Nashville or Memphis can push past that $56,540 mark.

Tennessee's construction sector has been running hot along the I-65 and I-40 corridors. Nashville's commercial and mixed-use build-out has kept drywall crews busy, and that demand generally supports wages toward the upper end of the scale. Knoxville and Chattanooga have seen steady residential growth as well, which creates work volume even if the per-hour rates sometimes run a few dollars below the Nashville metro. Rural counties typically pay less — the labor pool is smaller but so is the project volume, and most of the high-dollar commercial work is concentrated in the urban centers.

No union scale data is available for drywall installers in Tennessee through the sources we track. The state has a relatively low union density in construction trades compared to the Midwest or Northeast, so prevailing wage on most private jobs is set by market rate. On publicly funded projects, Tennessee does not have a state prevailing wage law, which means there's no mandated floor above the market rate for state-funded construction work.

What actually moves your pay as a drywall installer in Tennessee? Speed and finish quality matter more than almost anything else. Crews that can hang, tape, and finish to a Level 5 finish command a premium because that skill set is genuinely short supply. Knowing how to read blueprints, run a two-story scaffold safely, and work around other trades without slowing the schedule puts you in a different conversation than a straight laborer who only hangs board.

Overtime is common in this trade when projects are running behind schedule, which they often are. At the median rate of $22.84 straight time, an hour of overtime pays $34.26. A worker at the 75th percentile earns $40.77 for every overtime hour. Drywall work is physically demanding — ceiling work, heavy board handling, and repetitive finishing motions add up — so the total compensation picture should factor in how much your body is putting in relative to your take-home.

Side-by-side, Tennessee's median of $47,510 falls below the national median for this trade. Workers willing to take projects in high-demand urban areas, or those who add light framing and metal stud work to their skill set, are consistently the ones who close that gap. Contractors paying toward the top of the range are generally looking for people who can do the whole job — frame, hang, tape, and finish — rather than specialists at just one stage.