Food Servers, Nonrestaurant in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,723
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$3,577
12.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,470
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
$29,300
Kept after tax
$25,723
Worth in national money
$26,470
State rank
45
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for food servers, nonrestaurant. The middle earner takes $29,300, ranking 45 of 51 states — about 17.14% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Within Texas this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, food servers, nonrestaurant ranks 481. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $29,300 the take-home is $25,723, which is worth about $26,470 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $29,950, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 45 of 51 for food servers, nonrestaurant, with a median of $29,300 — about 17.14% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Against every occupation Texas reports, food servers, nonrestaurant ranks 481 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for food servers, nonrestaurant on its $29,300 median: $25,723 retained after tax becomes $26,470 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $29,950 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Food Servers, Nonrestaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,930 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,300 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,930 |
| This salary | $29,300 |
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 | $25,723 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $25,723 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,606 |
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 | $29,300 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,068 |
| 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 $29,300. The published range is $21,930 up to $36,930, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $25,723 take-home in Texas comes from $29,300. 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 481 of 493.
- Two cautions on $26,470, the adjusted value of that $29,300 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 481 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for food servers, nonrestaurant in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $21,930 to $36,930. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $25,723, from $29,300, 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 481 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 45 of 51 for it.
- This $26,470 adjusted figure, worked from $29,300, 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 481 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 481 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $21,930 at the tenth percentile, $36,930 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 $26,470 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $25,723 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?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($21,930 to $36,930) 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 $26,470 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 $25,723 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.