Sanitation Worker

Across all employers in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN area, the median wage for Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors — about 520 people — is $57,650. Nashville Waste Services Curbside Recycling pays a median base salary of $43,051 for this role, 25% below that figure — about the 27th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 7 of 8 people in this role paid at least $25,000 in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.

Median total compensation for this role at Nashville Waste Services Curbside Recycling is $45,531, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.

Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.

Sanitation Worker is held in 18 Metro Nashville departments. In Nashville Waste Services Curbside Recycling, the median of $45,531 ranks #2 of 18.

This role is reported in 4 jurisdictions. In Metro Nashville, the median of $9,700 ranks #3 of 4. See Sanitation Worker across all of Metro Nashville →

• Equipment Operator Senior 40