Clergy in Texas

Two armchairs facing each other in a welcoming counseling room.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$49,972

after federal, FICA and Texas tax

Tax takes

$9,508

16.0% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$51,425

Texas costs less than average

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

$59,480

Kept after tax

$49,972

Worth in national money

$51,425

State rank

30

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Texas sits in the middle of the pack for clergy. The median is $59,480, ranking 30 of 50 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. Clergy ranks 218 among 493 occupations Texas publishes pay for.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $59,480, tax leaves $49,972, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $51,425 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $62,430, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Texas occupies the middle band for clergy: a median of $59,480, ranking 30 of 50. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
  • Position 218 of 493 in Texas places clergy in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
  • Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for clergy — median $59,480 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,972 retained, $51,425 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $62,430 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Clergy

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$37,220
Half earn under$59,480
Top tenth earn over$84,940
This salary$59,480

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

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Florida
Take-home in Texas$49,972
Take-home in Florida$49,972
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$3,120

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

Moving to
$0$63,497
$63,497in Florida, for the same life
To match take-home only$59,480
Raise you would need+$4,017
Prices in Florida103 vs 97

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $59,480 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,220 and the ninetieth is $84,940 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $49,972, worked from $59,480. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 218 of 493.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $51,425 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 218.
  • The Texas median of $59,480 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,220 to $84,940. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • The Texas take-home of $49,972, on $59,480 for work ranking 218 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 218 of 493 in the state.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $51,425, worked from $59,480, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Texas address, on work sitting at 218 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 $62,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

Why is the pay range for this job so wide?

Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $37,220 and the top tenth $84,940 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.

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 $51,425 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

Less than people assume. $49,972 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?

The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.

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 $62,430. 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 ($37,220) and the ninetieth ($84,940) 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 $51,425 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 $49,972 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.