What is the median Texas salary in 2026?

Texas's median household income is ~$76,000 — close to the US median ($80,000) but with enormous regional variance. Austin-Round Rock metro median household clears $95,000; DFW around $85,000; Houston ~$80,000; San Antonio ~$67,000; rural counties drop to $45-55,000. Per-capita personal income statewide is ~$66,000. The 'average Texas salary' phrase usually conflates median with arithmetic mean — the mean is pulled up by Houston energy executives, Austin tech wealth, and Dallas PE/finance — and overstates what a typical TX worker actually takes home.

How much more do I take home in Texas vs California at $100K?

About $6,400 more per year. Texas: $79,180 take-home (0% state, $7,650 FICA, $13,170 federal). California: $72,753 take-home (same federal + FICA, plus $5,327 CA income tax + $1,100 CA SDI). The TX advantage scales — at $150K it's $11,627, at $200K it's $14,627, at $500K it grows toward $50,000+. Property tax narrows the gap for homeowners: a $400K TX home costs $8K/yr in property tax vs $4-5K on an equivalent CA Prop 13-protected home, eating roughly 60% of the income-tax savings. The math favors TX cleanest for renters and for households without long-tenure CA homeownership.

Are property taxes really high in Texas?

Yes — among the highest effective rates in the country. Texas property tax averages 1.6-2.5% of assessed value annually depending on county. Bexar County (San Antonio) and most of Harris County (Houston) sit at 1.6-1.8%. Travis County (Austin) is 1.8-2.0%. Collin/Denton (Frisco/Plano/Allen/McKinney) and parts of north Dallas reach 2.2-2.5%. On a $400K home in suburban Frisco, that's $8,800-10,000/yr in property tax. Forever, with no Prop 13-style cap on assessment growth — the 10% homestead cap is the main protection on primary residence and doesn't apply to new buyers (assessment resets to market on sale).

Which Texas professions pay the most?

Energy executives (ExxonMobil Spring TX, Chevron Houston, ConocoPhillips), specialty physicians at the Texas Medical Center (MD Anderson, Methodist, Memorial Hermann), AmLaw partners at Vinson & Elkins / Baker Botts Houston, investment-banking MDs at Goldman Dallas / JPMorgan Plano / Charles Schwab Westlake all clear $500K+. Specialty surgeons and oncologists at the Texas Medical Center reach $700K+ on procedure volume. Software engineering staff/principal at Tesla Gigafactory Austin, Apple Austin, Oracle, Meta, Google Austin reach $200-500K all-in including equity (15-25% below Bay Area equivalents). CRNAs at $200-260K are the highest-paid nursing specialty. Senior airline pilots residing in TX while flying out of any hub save $40-80K/yr in state tax vs equivalent CA-resident pilots.

Is Austin or Dallas cheaper to live in?

Dallas is cheaper across the board. Austin's housing surged since 2020 — median home $510K vs Dallas $385K. Property tax rates are similar (Austin 1.8-2.0% vs north Dallas suburbs 2.0-2.5%). Cost-of-living index: Austin 119, Dallas 102. For tech jobs Austin still wins on opportunity density (Apple, Tesla, Oracle, Meta, Google all have major Austin offices). For finance, telecom, and corporate-HQ jobs, Dallas wins.

Does Texas tax retirement income?

No — Texas has no state income tax of any kind, so Social Security, pensions, 401(k) distributions, traditional IRA distributions, and Roth IRA distributions are all untouched by the state. Combined with no estate tax and no inheritance tax, Texas is one of the most retirement-tax-friendly states in the US (alongside Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Wyoming). The tradeoff at retirement age is property tax — Texas property tax is the second-largest cost for most retirees, though the over-65 homestead exemption + tax-ceiling provision (assessments frozen at the year you turn 65 for school district taxes) materially helps retired homeowners.

Should I move from California to Texas for the tax savings?

Depends on home situation and W-2 income tier. For renters earning $150K+ in California, moving to Austin or Dallas typically wins by $15-30K/yr in clean take-home. For CA homeowners with long-tenure Prop 13 protection, the property tax savings in CA often eat 60-80% of the TX income-tax savings — the move becomes break-even or modestly negative. CA-to-TX movers since 2020 have skewed toward Bay Area tech renters and high-equity founders moving for liquidity events. For middle-class CA homeowners with Prop 13 positions, the math is rarely as one-sided as the headline 13.3% vs 0% suggests.

Texas Salary Guide — 2026

Texas Salary Guide 2026: Take-Home + Professions

Texas has zero state income tax — the headline behind every CA / NY tax-refugee narrative since 2018. The income-tax win is real: a $100K W-2 earner takes home ~$6,400 more in Texas than in California, ~$4,950 more than in New York. But Texas isn't low-tax — it collects from a different bucket. Property tax runs 1.6-2.5% effective with no Prop 13-style cap, sales tax stacks to 8.25% in most metros, and a franchise tax catches businesses above $1.23M revenue. For renters and high earners moving from CA, the no-income-tax angle is a clean win. For homeowners moving from CA Prop 13 properties, the math often flips. Texas now leads the US in Fortune 500 headquarters (~55) and has four metros that each anchor a different industry.

See Texas Tax Guide →Texas Paycheck Calculator →

Section 2

Texas take-home pay in 2026 at five common salary tiers

Single filer, federal standard deduction ($16,100), zero 401(k) contribution, no HSA or FSA. 2026 federal brackets per Rev. Proc. 2025-32, FICA at 6.2% Social Security up to $184,500 + 1.45% Medicare. Texas has no state income tax, no state-level SDI, no Mental Health Services Tax — your state tax line is genuinely zero. The $200K row is at the threshold for Additional Medicare 0.9% (kicks in ABOVE $200K, so $0 at exactly $200K).

Gross salary	Take-home (single)	Note
$50,000	$42,355	About $3,530/month after taxes. Comfortable in San Antonio, El Paso, or RGV; rent-tight in central Austin or inner-loop Houston.
$75,000	$61,592	$5,130/month. Comfortable across most TX metros at this income; suburban DFW or Houston gets a 3-bed townhouse.
$100,000	$79,180	$6,600/month. ~$6,400 more take-home than CA at the same gross; ~$3,000 more than PA.
$150,000	$113,791	$9,480/month. Frisco, Plano, West University Place, Westlake Hills — all comfortable at this comp tier even with TX property tax.
$200,000	$148,927	$12,410/month. Above this, Additional Medicare 0.9% applies to every marginal dollar; budget accordingly for bonuses + RSU vests.

Married filing jointly uses the same federal brackets (doubled thresholds for MFJ) — no separate TX state schedule because there isn't one. Property tax is the biggest separate cost: budget 1.6-2.5% of your home's assessed value annually depending on county. On a $400K Frisco home that's $8-10K/yr. Forever. No Prop 13 cap to slow assessment growth.

Section 3

Where Texas's highest salaries cluster — by role and employer

Senior-tier compensation bands. Texas added more Fortune 500 HQs than any state since 2018 (Tesla, Oracle, HPE, Charles Schwab, McKesson, CBRE, AECOM) and now has ~55 — surpassing California as of 2024. Each city anchors a different industry mix.

Energy executive / petroleum engineer — senior

$200K – $700K+

ExxonMobil (Spring TX, post-2023 HQ relocation from Irving), Chevron (Houston ops + Permian Basin), ConocoPhillips Houston, Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum, Valero San Antonio. Halliburton + Schlumberger oil services. Permian Basin field engineers clear $200-300K base + bonuses. Senior reservoir engineers and downstream refining ops reach $500K+.

Investment banker / private equity MD

$500K – $5M+

Goldman Sachs Dallas (post-2024 Goldman Stop 6 campus, ~5K employees), JPMorgan Plano, Bank of America Plano, Charles Schwab Westlake (post-2020 SF relocation), TPG Capital Fort Worth (~$140B AUM), Lone Star Funds Dallas. Texas now has a real PE/IB cluster — wasn't true a decade ago.

Specialty physician — cardiology, oncology, surgical

$450K – $750K

Texas Medical Center Houston (largest medical center in the world by employment ~106K; MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital, Memorial Hermann, Methodist, Baylor College of Medicine, UT Health Houston). UT Southwestern Dallas. Dell Med UT Austin. Cleveland Clinic outposts.

AmLaw equity partner

$500K – $3M+

Vinson & Elkins Houston (the original oil & gas powerhouse, ~150-year-old firm), Baker Botts Houston (founded 1840), Bracewell Houston + Dallas, Jackson Walker Dallas, Locke Lord Dallas, Haynes Boone Dallas, Kirkland & Ellis Houston + Austin, Latham & Watkins Houston. Energy M&A and litigation drive the top tier; pure-NY firms (Cravath, Sullivan) opening Texas offices have shifted comp upward post-2022.

Software engineer — staff / principal at TX tech HQs

$200K – $500K+

Apple Austin (Mac Pro manufacturing + chip design R&D, ~7K Austin employees), Tesla Gigafactory Austin (HQ post-2021 from Palo Alto, ~12K Austin), Oracle Austin (HQ post-2020 from Redwood Shores), Meta Austin, Google Austin (~7K), Amazon Austin, IBM Austin (Watson + cloud, ~6K). Bay Area mobility means TX SE pay has caught up faster than expected — but still ~15-25% below Bay Area for staff+ roles.

Aerospace / defense engineer

$130K – $280K

Lockheed Martin Fort Worth (F-35 Lightning II final assembly, ~14K Fort Worth employees — largest US fighter program), Bell Textron Fort Worth (V-22 Osprey, V-280 Valor FLRAA), L3Harris Greenville, Raytheon McKinney, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX Brownsville (Starbase) + McGregor. Cleared roles add 20-30%.

Pilot / aviation senior

$200K – $400K+

Southwest Airlines HQ Dallas Love Field (~10K Dallas employees, all WN pilots based via 11 US bases), American Airlines HQ Fort Worth (DFW hub ~30K AA employees, largest US carrier by fleet), United Houston hub, FedEx Express Memphis + DFW. TX's 49 USC 40116 federal preemption + 0% state income tax = optimal US pilot residency state. Senior wide-body captains residing in Texas while flying out of CA/NY hubs save $40-80K/yr vs equivalent CA-resident pilots.

Tech founder / VC partner

$300K – $5M+ + equity

Austin Ventures legacy + post-2020 Bay Area transplants (Capital Factory, S3 Ventures, ATX Venture Partners). Tech founders concentrate in Austin; energy + RE founders in Houston + Dallas. Dell Technologies legacy in Round Rock.

Actuary — senior consultant

$140K – $230K

USAA San Antonio (~19K employees, member-owned financial services for military families), AIG Houston, Anthem Texas. USAA's actuarial bench is among the largest in the US insurance industry.

Real estate developer / commercial RE

$200K – $5M+

Hines (Houston-HQ, global RE developer ~$93B AUM), Trammell Crow Dallas, Lincoln Property Company Dallas, JLL Texas, CBRE Dallas (HQ relocated from LA in 2020). Texas land + zoning favors developers; the lack of state income tax compounds CRE returns at exit.

Section 4

Where Texas pays the least — federal-floor minimum wage and a low service-sector cost structure

Texas minimum wage is the $7.25 federal floor — no state minimum above it. Cost-of-living absorbs that better than CA, but typical full-time floor jobs still pay much less here than they would in California. These are typical bands across the major TX metros.

Retail cashier / sales associate

$24K – $32K

Walmart (Arkansas-HQ, but largest TX private employer ~170K), HEB (San Antonio-HQ Texas grocery chain ~110K employees), Target, Whole Foods. HEB pays well above the federal floor; Walmart's recent raises put many TX stores at $14-16/hr starting.

Fast food worker

$22K – $30K

McDonald's, Whataburger (TX-HQ Corpus Christi, ~50K employees), Chick-fil-A, Sonic. Tipped restaurant minimum is $2.13/hr with tip credit; busy Austin / Houston / Dallas servers often clear $35-50K with tips on top.

Home health aide / personal care worker

$26K – $34K

TX's aging Sunbelt-retiree population drives demand. Medicaid reimbursement constrains wages; private-pay clients pay better. Bayada, BrightStar, Encompass Health, kindredHealth.

Childcare worker

$22K – $32K

Bright Horizons, KinderCare, La Petite Academy, plus thousands of small operators. TX childcare credentialing is minimal; pay-to-credential ratio is the worst in the major-state set.

Construction laborer / framer

$32K – $48K

Texas residential construction is among the largest in the US (Houston + Austin + DFW all in US top-10 starts annually). Roofers, framers, drywall hangers run $14-22/hr; specialty trades (electricians, plumbers) reach $60K+ as apprentices ladder up.

Agricultural worker — RGV produce / Panhandle

$28K – $38K

Rio Grande Valley citrus + onion farms, Panhandle cattle + cotton, East Texas poultry (Tyson, Pilgrim's Pride). H-2A visa labor + smaller family operations. Wages have crept up since 2020 labor shortages but housing in farming counties is increasingly out of reach.

Section 5

Texas's economy — four metros, four industries, and the rest of the state

Houston is Texas's economic engine and the energy capital of the world. ExxonMobil (post-2023 HQ relocation from Irving to Spring TX), Chevron's downstream + Permian ops, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes — the supermajor + oilfield-services cluster employs ~250,000 in greater Houston. Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center on Earth — over 106,000 workers across MD Anderson, Texas Children's, Memorial Hermann, Methodist, Baylor College of Medicine + UT Health Houston. Houston also hosts the Vinson & Elkins / Baker Botts / Bracewell BigLaw cluster, energy M&A bankers, NASA Johnson Space Center, and the Port of Houston (largest US port by foreign tonnage).

Dallas-Fort Worth runs a different economy — corporate HQs, finance, transportation logistics, telecom. AT&T HQ Dallas, ExxonMobil's legacy Irving offices (despite the Houston ops move), McKesson (post-2018 relocation from SF), Caterpillar HQ Irving (post-2022 from Deerfield IL), Toyota Motor North America HQ Plano, Charles Schwab Westlake (post-2020 from SF), Goldman Sachs Dallas (~5K post-2024 Stop 6 campus), JPMorgan Plano. AA's Fort Worth HQ + DFW hub anchor the airline industry. American Airlines, Southwest Airlines (Dallas Love Field HQ), and Atlas Air all anchor major TX bases. The Lockheed Martin Fort Worth F-35 plant employs ~14K making the world's most-produced fighter aircraft. PE firms (TPG Fort Worth ~$140B AUM, Lone Star Funds Dallas) and the DFW corporate-relocation pipeline anchor the financial side.

Austin and San Antonio round out the four major TX metros. Austin is tech + government + UT — Apple's $1B+ Austin campus (~7K), Tesla's Gigafactory Austin (HQ + assembly, ~12K), Oracle's HQ post-2020 SF relocation, Meta, Google, Amazon, IBM, Dell (Round Rock), plus the Texas state government (40K state employees). San Antonio is military + insurance + healthcare — USAA HQ (~19K), Lackland AFB, Fort Sam Houston, Randolph AFB, HEB grocery HQ, South Texas Medical Center. The rest of Texas runs on oil/gas (Permian Basin around Midland-Odessa, Eagle Ford in South Texas), agriculture (RGV, Panhandle cattle + cotton, East Texas poultry), and Mexican cross-border trade (Laredo is the largest US-Mexico land port by cargo value).

Section 6

How Texas tax shapes your actual take-home — the property tax counterweight

Texas has no state income tax. Wages, capital gains, dividends, retirement income — none of it touches a state line. A $100K Texas worker takes home about $6,400 more than the same earner in California, $5,000 more than New York, $3,000 more than Pennsylvania. The savings compound at higher incomes: a $200K earner saves ~$14,600 vs California, $9,800 vs New York. For Bay Area / NYC tech workers relocating to Austin or Dallas, the take-home arithmetic alone usually pencils out within the first year — even before accounting for housing-cost differences.

The trade-off is property tax. Texas effective property tax rates run 1.6% in Bexar County (San Antonio) and Harris County suburbs (Houston), 1.8-2.0% in Travis County (Austin), and 2.2-2.5% in Collin/Denton (Frisco / Plano / Allen / McKinney) and parts of north Dallas. There is no Prop 13-style cap on assessment growth. The 10% homestead cap limits primary-residence assessment increases per year but doesn't apply to the underlying market-value reset on sale — so new buyers fully reset to current market. On a $400K Frisco home, that's $8,000-10,000/yr in property tax. Forever. A long-tenure California Prop 13 homeowner paying $4,500/yr on a comparable-value home is materially cheaper, even with CA's income tax stacked on top.

Sales tax stacks at 8.25% in most TX metros once you add city + transit + special districts (state base 6.25% + local up to 2%). Texas also has a franchise tax on business revenue above $1.23M (the no-tax-margin threshold; tax rate runs 0.375% retail/wholesale or 0.75% other for businesses above it). For W-2 earners under $200K who'd rent in Texas anyway, the no-income-tax win is clean and large. For homeowners considering a CA-to-TX move from a Prop 13 property, the property-tax differential often eats most of the income-tax savings — run real numbers on your actual home value before committing.

Section 7

$100,000 in Texas vs neighbor states with state income tax — same gross, different take-home

Single filer, $100,000 gross, no 401(k), federal standard deduction. State tax only — federal and FICA are identical across all four. Property tax differences not modeled (TX's 1.6-2.5% effective vs CA Prop 13 cap or FL 0.83% would shift the homeowner math significantly).

Texas (baseline)

Take-home ~$79,180

0% state income tax, no SDI, no MHST. Federal $13,170 + FICA $7,650 = $20,820 total tax. The clean baseline.

California

−$6,427 vs TX

Take-home ~$72,753. CA state $5,327 + CA SDI $1,100 = $6,427 combined state cost at $100K. Prop 13 long-tenure homeowners often offset this on the property-tax side; new CA buyers don't.

New York

−$4,952 vs TX

Take-home ~$74,228. NY state ~$4,952 at $100K (effective ~4.95%). NYC residents stack another ~$3,900 city tax, making NYC ~$8,850 WORSE than TX at $100K.

Florida

Take-home ~$79,180 (equal to TX)

FL also has 0% state income tax. Identical wage take-home. The differentiator is property tax: FL averages 0.83% effective vs TX 1.6-2.5% — FL homeowners win by $3-7K/yr on equivalent home values. FL Save Our Homes cap (3%/yr) is closer to CA Prop 13 than to TX's uncapped growth.