Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,343
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$7,397
15.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,544
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
$48,740
Kept after tax
$41,343
Worth in national money
$42,544
State rank
33
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $48,740, ranking 33 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 287 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $48,740, tax leaves $41,343, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $42,544 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $49,040, since top earners drag the number up.
- Texas occupies the middle band for bus drivers, transit and intercity: a median of $48,740, ranking 33 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Bus drivers, transit and intercity ranks 287 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.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for bus drivers, transit and intercity — median $48,740 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $41,343 retained, $42,544 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $49,040 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,890 |
| This salary | $48,740 |
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 | $41,343 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $41,343 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,581 |
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 | $48,740 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,324 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,740 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,290 and the ninetieth is $64,890 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $41,343 take-home in Texas comes from $48,740. 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 287 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $42,544, the adjusted value of that $48,740 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 287 of 493 in the state.
- The Texas median of $48,740 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,290 to $64,890. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $41,343, from $48,740, 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 287 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 33 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $42,544 — the adjusted value of that $48,740 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 287 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $37,290 at the tenth percentile, $64,890 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $42,544 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $41,343 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.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($37,290 to $64,890) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Texas rather than a national figure.
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 $42,544 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 $41,343 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.