How much do elevator installers make in Tennessee in 2026?

The median elevator installer salary in Tennessee is $100,490 a year, which works out to roughly $48.31 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That number comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey published May 2025, and it reflects what a mid-career installer actually earns — not a recruiter's best-case estimate.

The spread across the pay scale is worth understanding before you take a job or negotiate a raise. Workers at the 25th percentile earn $77,080 annually, about $37.06 an hour. That's where you typically find newer journey-level installers still building speed and complexity on the job, or workers in lower-volume markets. The 75th percentile sits at $106,940, or $51.41 an hour — the territory of experienced hands who handle complex hydraulic and traction systems, read blueprints fluently, and carry a track record of clean inspections. The gap between the bottom quarter and the top quarter is nearly $30,000 a year, which tells you experience and specialization genuinely pay off in this trade.

Elevator installation is one of the more compact skilled trades in terms of total workforce size, which affects how hiring plays out in Tennessee. The state's biggest concentrations of work run through Nashville and its surrounding metro, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. Nashville in particular has seen sustained commercial and residential high-rise construction, which drives demand for new-install work. Knoxville and Chattanooga have smaller pools of active projects but also smaller pools of qualified installers, so negotiating leverage isn't zero outside the major metros.

The job splits into two broad categories: new construction and service/repair. New construction installers often work irregular schedules tied to project timelines and can log significant overtime hours when a building's punch-list deadline is closing in. Service and modernization work tends toward steadier hours but still demands weekend on-call availability when an elevator goes down in a hospital, hotel, or apartment building. Overtime hours at time-and-a-half can meaningfully push annual take-home above whatever base rate you negotiate, and for workers near the median, a heavy overtime quarter can be worth an extra $5,000 to $10,000 depending on hours logged.

Apprenticeship is the standard path into this trade. Programs typically run four to five years and combine on-the-job training with technical instruction covering hydraulics, electrical systems, machine room equipment, and safety codes. Tennessee requires elevator mechanics to be licensed through the state's Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and that license requires passing an exam. Keeping your license current also means staying on top of continuing education requirements. Candidates who come in with a strong electrical background — whether from a prior trade or vocational schooling — tend to move through the technical portions of apprenticeship faster and get placed on more complex jobs sooner, which accelerates their climb toward the upper percentiles.

Some elevator installers in Tennessee work under collective bargaining agreements; others work for non-union contractors. Because no specific union pay scale data is available for this trade in Tennessee, it's not possible to say which arrangement pays more or less here. If you are covered by a collective agreement, the pay and benefit terms are set in that agreement — check directly with your local for the current scale.

Benefits vary considerably by employer type and affect total compensation in ways the BLS wage figures don't capture. Pension contributions, health insurance quality, and paid time-off policies are all part of the real picture. An installer earning $95,000 with a defined-benefit pension and employer-paid family health coverage is better positioned than someone at $105,000 with thin benefits and high out-of-pocket costs. When comparing offers, convert everything to an annual dollar value before deciding.

What moves the needle on pay in this trade: years of verified field experience, a clean inspection record, the ability to work on both hydraulic and traction systems, comfort with electronic controls and modern drive systems, and — for those who want it — moving into a lead or supervisor role on larger project crews. Installers who can also perform modernization work (upgrading older systems to current codes) are particularly useful to employers because that segment of the market runs regardless of new construction cycles.

The BLS figures here represent wage income only and are based on employer-reported data. Self-employed installers, workers whose hours are misreported, and certain owner-operators may fall outside the survey's capture. Use the percentile range as your baseline for negotiation, not as a ceiling.