Bus Driver Salary in Nashville, TN (2026)

What bus driver pay in Nashville really looks like

At $52,100 a year, Nashville pays modestly below the national market for bus drivers — $6,950 (12%) under the U.S. median of $59,050. It is a real gap, but a beatable one: the higher end of the local range closes most of it, and a credential or a supervisory step can push a Nashville bus driver past the national figure without leaving the metro.

Pay is tightly clustered here: the 25th-to-75th-percentile band runs just $47,410 to $58,900 (BLS). A narrow spread means the metro median is a dependable expectation rather than a midpoint between wildly different jobs — there is little room above it without a credential, a specialty, or a supervisory step, so the ladder up is about the role, not just the employer.

This is a substantial local market: BLS estimates roughly 1,160 bus driver jobs across the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metro area (a count of metro employment, not a survey of reported salaries). A deep employer base is good news for pay — it means more openings to compare side by side, more turnover creating vacancies, and more leverage to hold out for an employer at the top of the local range instead of settling for the first offer that lands.

Right now, Jobeezy is tracking 24 open bus driver jobs in Nashville against the BLS $52,100 benchmark — the live listings and the employers hiring are below, so you can see which openings actually clear the metro median before you apply.

Put it together and the picture for Nashville is concrete: a metro median of $52,100 with most bus drivers landing between $47,410 and $58,900. The practical move is to aim for the upper half of that band. Jobeezy fit-scores local bus driver openings, surfaces the employers posting toward $58,900, and applies for you — so your time goes to the jobs that clear the Nashville median, not the ones that sit under it.

How we know this — Nashville sources

Wage figures for Bus Driver in Nashville, TN are the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS May 2025 estimate for the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metro area (MSA code 34980) (SOC 53-3052), released 2026-08-25. Suppressed cells are shown as an em dash, never a zero.

Reviewed by Dalton Metzler · Jobeezy Compensation Data

How we source & label these figures →

Bus Driver pay in Nashville, TN — common questions

How much does a Bus Driver make in Nashville, TN?

The median Bus Driver salary in Nashville, TN is $52,100/year ($6,950 (12%) below the national median), with a typical range of $47,410–$58,900 (25th–75th percentile). Figures are BLS OEWS May 2025, released 2026-08-25.

Is Nashville a strong pay market for Bus Drivers?

At a $52,100 median, Nashville is $6,950 (12%) below the national median. The U.S. median is $59,050. Jobeezy shows you which local employers actually pay at the top of that band before you apply.

How can I earn more as a Bus Driver in Nashville?

Target employers paying toward the $58,900 (75th-percentile) mark and anchor your negotiation to the BLS band. Jobeezy fit-scores Bus Driver openings in Nashville and auto-applies, so you reach more high-paying employers fast.

How many Bus Drivers work in Nashville?

BLS estimates roughly 1,160 bus driver jobs across Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN (May 2025 metro employment — a count of jobs, not of salaries reported).