Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$110,524
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$34,696
23.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$113,737
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
$145,220
Kept after tax
$110,524
Worth in national money
$113,737
State rank
1
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $145,220, which ranks 1 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 42.48% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Texas. It ranks 13 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $145,220, tax leaves $110,524, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $113,737 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $160,070, since top earners drag the number up.
- Texas ranks 1 of 50 states publishing a median for geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers, at $145,220 — about 42.48% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Texas, geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers ranks 13 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.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers — median $145,220 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $110,524 retained, $113,737 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $160,070 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $145,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $287,180 |
| This salary | $145,220 |
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 | $110,524 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $110,524 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$6,901 |
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 | $145,220 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$10,445 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $145,220 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $60,100 and the ninetieth is $287,180 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $110,524, from $145,220, 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 13 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 $113,737, the adjusted value of that $145,220 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 13 of 493 in the state.
- The Texas median of $145,220 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $60,100 to $287,180. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $110,524 from $145,220. 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 13 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $113,737 — the adjusted value of that $145,220 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 13 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 $160,070, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $60,100, the highest tenth $287,180, 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 $113,737 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $110,524 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 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 $160,070. 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 ($60,100) and the ninetieth ($287,180) 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 $113,737 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 $110,524 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.