Customer Support Specialist salary in Knoxville, TN

Pay in Knoxville against Tennessee and the US

The middle half of customer support specialists in Knoxville earns $34,420–$47,720. The top tenth earns $60,300 or more, 2.0 times the bottom tenth, close to the US pattern of 2.0 times. The mean ($42,810) is 10% over the median, so a group of high earners pulls the average up; price a typical hire from the median. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is $13,300 wide, between the figure for Tennessee ($12,540) and the US figure ($14,910).

What to budget for a customer support specialist here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $8,880 over the median, the 25th only $4,420 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $11,458 a year in employer cost. These percentiles describe what people in the job earn locally, not experience levels, so place your offer by the tasks and seniority you need.

For scale, the US median of $44,770 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Knoxville, and the Tennessee statewide median of $42,830 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Knoxville

At the $38,840 median, a local hire costs about $50,116 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $11,276 here. Recruiting, equipment and office space come on top. Benefit levels vary by employer, so treat this as an estimate.

Our open customer support specialist roles pay $700–$1,000 a month under a direct contract. The one-time fee is $2,500³ with a 180-day replacement; paying through Deel adds $49 a month⁴. Change any number below to match your plan.

A local hire here costs about 3.8 times as much as a remote hire in year one at the midpoint of our range. From year two, when the fee drops out, it is 4.6 times the remote figure of $10,788. About the candidates: most apply through our assessment platform with a written and a spoken English task; each profile shows the English level (B1–C2); Silkstaff interviews every shortlisted candidate live, in English, before you meet them.

Other roles in Knoxville

Of the 17 roles we track in Knoxville, this one ranks #15 by median pay, between data entry specialists ($38,990) and medical administrative assistants ($38,420). Project Coordinator is the highest at $91,690.

Measured against the US median, customer support specialists rank #12 of the 17 roles we track in Knoxville (-13.2%), between executive assistants (-12.1%) and e-commerce order specialists (-14.8%). The typical role here is at -11.0%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Customer support specialists hold 14.2% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Knoxville, 16.5% across Tennessee and 16.4% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Tennessee

Across the 14 areas of Tennessee with data for this job, the median runs from $36,130 in Kingsport-Bristol to $45,510 in Nashville-Murfreesboro, a gap of $9,380 a year. All 2 areas in Tennessee with more customer support specialists than Knoxville also pay more, among them Nashville-Murfreesboro, TN ($45,510) and Memphis, TN-MS ($44,090).

Knoxville against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Knoxville is #68 of 520 US areas for this job. It is one of the larger markets for this job, with pay near the middle of the US range. Outside Tennessee, Bay City and Springfield pay just above Knoxville and Twin Falls and Waco just below. All four are within $130 a year of the median in Knoxville. Of the three markets with about as many customer support specialists, two pay more.

Questions

Sources

How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-12.