Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,419
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$7,171
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,594
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
$47,590
Kept after tax
$40,419
Worth in national money
$41,594
State rank
37
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for drywall and ceiling tile installers is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $47,590. That is 37 of 49 states, and about 19.24% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 306 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 $47,590, tax leaves $40,419, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $41,594 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $49,040, since top earners drag the number up.
- For drywall and ceiling tile installers, Texas sits in the lower band at $47,590, ranking 37 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 19.24%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Drywall and ceiling tile installers ranks 306 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 drywall and ceiling tile installers — median $47,590 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $40,419 retained, $41,594 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: Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,260 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,030 |
| This salary | $47,590 |
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 | $40,419 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $40,419 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,524 |
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 | $47,590 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,249 |
| 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 drywall and ceiling tile installers in Texas earn under $47,590 and half over. The published range runs $35,260 at the tenth percentile to $61,030 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $40,419, from $47,590, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 306 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $41,594, the adjusted value of that $47,590 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 306 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for drywall and ceiling tile installers in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,260 to $61,030; 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.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $40,419 from $47,590. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 306 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $41,594 — the adjusted value of that $47,590 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 306 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 $49,040, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $35,260 at the bottom tenth to $61,030 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $41,594 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $40,419 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 $49,040. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($35,260 to $61,030) 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 $41,594 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 $40,419 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.