Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Texas

Books, colored pencils and a globe in a bright classroom.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$61,656

after federal, FICA and Texas tax

Tax takes

$13,434

17.9% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$63,448

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

$75,090

Kept after tax

$61,656

Worth in national money

$63,448

State rank

31

of 45 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for this job is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $75,090. That is 31 of 45 states, and about 5.37% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 143 among 493 occupations Texas publishes pay for.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $75,090, tax leaves $61,656, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,448 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $81,220, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary, Texas sits in the lower band at $75,090, ranking 31 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 5.37%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
  • Position 143 of 493 in Texas places foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary 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 foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary — median $75,090 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $61,656 retained, $63,448 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $81,220 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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Pay band: Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$39,170
Half earn under$75,090
Top tenth earn over$126,920
This salary$75,090

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$61,656
Take-home in Florida$61,656
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$3,850

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$80,751
$80,751in Florida, for the same life
To match take-home only$75,090
Raise you would need+$5,661
Prices in Florida103 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 foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary in Texas earn under $75,090 and half over. The published range runs $39,170 at the tenth percentile to $126,920 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $61,656 take-home in Texas comes from $75,090. 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 143 of 493.
  • Two cautions on $63,448, the adjusted value of that $75,090 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 143 of 493 locally.
  • Figures are distribution medians for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,170 to $126,920; 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.
  • Retained pay of $61,656, from $75,090, 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 143 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 31 of 45 for it.
  • This $63,448 adjusted figure, worked from $75,090, 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 143 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 143 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 $81,220, 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 $39,170 and the top tenth $126,920 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

Further than the number implies. Texas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $63,448 in national terms.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

No. $61,656 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?

The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 45 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 $81,220. 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 ($39,170) and the ninetieth ($126,920) 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 $63,448 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 $61,656 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.