Materials Engineers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$91,632
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$26,068
22.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$94,296
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
$117,700
Kept after tax
$91,632
Worth in national money
$94,296
State rank
15
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for materials engineers is strong here. Texas's middle earner gets $117,700, putting the state 15 of 45 — about 4.29% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Texas. It ranks 38 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $117,700 the take-home is $91,632, which is worth about $94,296 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $126,480, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For materials engineers, Texas sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $117,700, ranking 15 of 45 and running about 4.29% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Texas, materials engineers ranks 38 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.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for materials engineers on its $117,700 median: $91,632 retained after tax becomes $94,296 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $126,480 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Materials Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $67,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $117,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $187,460 |
| This salary | $117,700 |
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 | $91,632 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $91,632 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,721 |
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 | $117,700 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$8,540 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 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 materials engineers in Texas earn under $117,700 and half over. The published range runs $67,690 at the tenth percentile to $187,460 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $91,632, from $117,700, 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 38 of 493 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $94,296 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 38.
- Figures are distribution medians for materials engineers in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $67,690 to $187,460; 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.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $91,632 from $117,700. 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 38 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $94,296, worked from $117,700, 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 38 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 $126,480 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $67,690, the highest tenth $187,460, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $94,296.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $91,632 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 $126,480. 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 ($67,690) and the ninetieth ($187,460) 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 $94,296 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 $91,632 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.