Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,409
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$8,881
15.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,787
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
$56,290
Kept after tax
$47,409
Worth in national money
$48,787
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $56,290, ranking 40 of 51 states — about 4.01% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 240 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $56,290 the take-home is $47,409, which is worth about $48,787 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $57,990, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 40 of 51 for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, with a median of $56,290 — about 4.01% 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.
- Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers ranks 240 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.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers on its $56,290 median: $47,409 retained after tax becomes $48,787 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $57,990 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,290 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,400 |
| This salary | $56,290 |
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 | $47,409 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $47,409 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,960 |
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 | $56,290 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,811 |
| 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 $56,290. The published range is $38,150 up to $79,400, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $47,409, worked from $56,290. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 240 of 493.
- Two cautions on $48,787, the adjusted value of that $56,290 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 240 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $38,150 to $79,400. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Texas take-home of $47,409, on $56,290 for work ranking 240 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 240 of 493 in the state.
- This $48,787 adjusted figure, worked from $56,290, 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 240 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 240 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 $57,990, 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 $38,150 and the top tenth $79,400 — 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 $48,787 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $47,409 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.
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 $57,990. 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 ($38,150) and the ninetieth ($79,400) 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 $48,787 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 $47,409 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.