Helpers--Carpenters in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,494
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$6,456
14.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,584
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
$43,950
Kept after tax
$37,494
Worth in national money
$38,584
State rank
17
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Texas pays helpers--carpenters around $43,950 at the midpoint, 17 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Helpers--carpenters ranks 360 among 493 occupations Texas publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $43,950, tax leaves $37,494, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $38,584 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $42,120.
- For helpers--carpenters the Texas median is $43,950, ranking 17 of 47 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 360 of 493 in Texas places helpers--carpenters 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 helpers--carpenters — median $43,950 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $37,494 retained, $38,584 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $42,120 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Helpers--Carpenters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $56,560 |
| This salary | $43,950 |
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 | $37,494 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $37,494 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,341 |
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 | $43,950 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,014 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $43,950 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,490 and the ninetieth is $56,560 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $37,494, worked from $43,950. 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 360 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $38,584 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 360.
- The Texas median of $43,950 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,490 to $56,560. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Texas take-home of $37,494, on $43,950 for work ranking 360 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 360 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $38,584, worked from $43,950, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Texas address, on work sitting at 360 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $42,120 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $28,490 and the top tenth $56,560, so most people doing this work in Texas sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $38,584.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $37,494 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?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 47 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 $42,120. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($28,490 to $56,560) 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 $38,584 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 $37,494 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.