Dentists, General in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$122,239
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$40,121
24.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$125,793
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
$162,360
Kept after tax
$122,239
Worth in national money
$125,793
State rank
35
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for dentists, general is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $162,360. That is 35 of 47 states, and about 5.02% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Within Texas this is well-paid work. Of 493 occupations with published figures in the state, dentists, general ranks 9 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $162,360, tax leaves $122,239, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $125,793 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $178,360, since top earners drag the number up.
- For dentists, general, Texas sits in the lower band at $162,360, ranking 35 of 47 and trailing the national median by about 5.02%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Ranked against every occupation Texas publishes a median for, dentists, general sits 9 of 493 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for dentists, general — median $162,360 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $122,239 retained, $125,793 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $178,360 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Dentists, General
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $83,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $162,360 |
| Top tenth earn over | $308,220 |
| This salary | $162,360 |
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 | $122,239 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $122,239 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$7,633 |
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 | $162,360 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$11,552 |
| 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 $162,360. The published range is $83,990 up to $308,220, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $122,239 take-home in Texas comes from $162,360. 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 9 of 493.
- Two cautions on $125,793, the adjusted value of that $162,360 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 9 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for dentists, general in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $83,990 to $308,220. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $122,239, from $162,360, 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 9 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 47 for it.
- This $125,793 adjusted figure, worked from $162,360, 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 9 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 9 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $178,360, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $83,990 and the top tenth $308,220 — 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 $125,793 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $122,239 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 47 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 $178,360. 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 ($83,990) and the ninetieth ($308,220) 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 $125,793 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 $122,239 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.