Detectives and Criminal Investigators in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$72,504
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$18,006
19.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$74,612
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
$90,510
Kept after tax
$72,504
Worth in national money
$74,612
State rank
25
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 $90,510, ranking 25 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Texas. It ranks 90 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $90,510 the take-home is $72,504, which is worth about $74,612 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $92,030, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas occupies the middle band for detectives and criminal investigators: a median of $90,510, ranking 25 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.
- Within Texas, detectives and criminal investigators ranks 90 of 493 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for detectives and criminal investigators on its $90,510 median: $72,504 retained after tax becomes $74,612 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $92,030 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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: Detectives and Criminal Investigators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $90,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $132,850 |
| This salary | $90,510 |
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 | $72,504 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $72,504 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,527 |
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 | $90,510 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$6,657 |
| 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 $90,510. The published range is $52,510 up to $132,850, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $72,504 take-home in Texas comes from $90,510. 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 90 of 493.
- Two cautions on $74,612, the adjusted value of that $90,510 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 90 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for detectives and criminal investigators in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $52,510 to $132,850. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $72,504, from $90,510, 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 90 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- This $74,612 adjusted figure, worked from $90,510, 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 90 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 90 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $52,510, the highest tenth $132,850, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $74,612 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $72,504 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($52,510) and the ninetieth ($132,850) 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 $74,612 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 $72,504 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.