Architectural and Civil Drafters in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,058
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$10,262
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,600
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$63,320
Kept after tax
$53,058
Worth in national money
$54,600
State rank
29
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Texas is 29 of 50 states for this job, with a middle wage of $63,320. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 184 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $63,320, take-home of $53,058 is worth roughly $54,600 in national money. The average comes to $68,600, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Texas ranks 29 of 50 for architectural and civil drafters at $63,320. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Architectural and civil drafters ranks 184 of 493 occupations in Texas by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for architectural and civil drafters, whose median is $63,320, the adjusted figure of $54,600 differs little from $53,058 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $68,600 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Architectural and Civil Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,350 |
| This salary | $63,320 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Texas | $53,058 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $53,058 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,313 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $63,320 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,420 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Texas earn less than $63,320. The published range is $44,950 up to $100,350, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $53,058, from $63,320, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 184 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,600, the adjusted value of that $63,320 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 184 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for architectural and civil drafters in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $44,950 to $100,350. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $53,058 from $63,320. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 184 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $54,600 — the adjusted value of that $63,320 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 184 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $68,600, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $44,950, the highest tenth $100,350, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $54,600.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $53,058 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Texas is $68,600. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($44,950) and the ninetieth ($100,350) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $54,600 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $53,058 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.