Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,393
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$14,167
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,236
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
$77,560
Kept after tax
$63,393
Worth in national money
$65,236
State rank
21
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Texas is 21 of 49 states for this job, with a middle wage of $77,560. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Texas reports figures for, this is number 129.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $77,560, take-home of $63,393 is worth roughly $65,236 in national money. The average comes to $84,800, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Texas ranks 21 of 49 for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary at $77,560. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- In Texas's occupational distribution, art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary sits at 129 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary, whose median is $77,560, the adjusted figure of $65,236 differs little from $63,393 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $84,800 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,170 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,560 |
| Top tenth earn over | $128,210 |
| This salary | $77,560 |
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 | $63,393 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $63,393 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,958 |
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 | $77,560 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,821 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Texas earn under $77,560 and half over. The published range runs $40,170 at the tenth percentile to $128,210 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $63,393 take-home in Texas comes from $77,560. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 129 of 493.
- Two cautions on $65,236, the adjusted value of that $77,560 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Texas. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 129 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $40,170 to $128,210; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $63,393, from $77,560, assumes a single Texas filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 129 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 49 for it.
- This $65,236 adjusted figure, worked from $77,560, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 129 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 129 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $84,800 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $40,170 at the bottom tenth to $128,210 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Texas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $65,236 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $63,393 of this wage reaches your account, because Texas takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $84,800. 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 ($40,170) and the ninetieth ($128,210) 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 $65,236 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 $63,393 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.