Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists in Texas

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,831
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$3,849
12.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,611
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
$30,680
Kept after tax
$26,831
Worth in national money
$27,611
State rank
41
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $30,680, ranking 41 of 50 states — about 14.28% 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, this job ranks 469. 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 $30,680 the take-home is $26,831, which is worth about $27,611 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $38,820, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 41 of 50 for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists, with a median of $30,680 — about 14.28% 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, hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists ranks 469 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 hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists on its $30,680 median: $26,831 retained after tax becomes $27,611 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $38,820 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,580 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,680 |
| Top tenth earn over | $59,730 |
| This salary | $30,680 |
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 | $26,831 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $26,831 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,675 |
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 | $30,680 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,157 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $30,680 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $23,580 and the ninetieth is $59,730 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $26,831, from $30,680, 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 469 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $27,611, the adjusted value of that $30,680 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 469 of 493 locally.
- The Texas median of $30,680 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $23,580 to $59,730. 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 $26,831 from $30,680. 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 469 of 493 locally.
- This $27,611 adjusted figure, worked from $30,680, 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 469 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 469 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $38,820, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $23,580 and the top tenth $59,730 — 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 $27,611 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $26,831 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.
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 $38,820. 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 ($23,580) and the ninetieth ($59,730) 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 $27,611 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 $26,831 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.