Mechanical Engineers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$87,910
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$24,500
21.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$90,466
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
$112,410
Kept after tax
$87,910
Worth in national money
$90,466
State rank
12
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Texas pays mechanical engineers a middle wage of $112,410, ranking 12 of 51 states and sitting about 7.97% above the national middle.
- Within Texas this is well-paid work. Of 493 occupations with published figures in the state, mechanical engineers ranks 43 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $112,410 the take-home is $87,910, which is worth about $90,466 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $121,510, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas's median for mechanical engineers is $112,410, about 7.97% above the national figure and 12 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Ranked against every occupation Texas publishes a median for, mechanical engineers sits 43 of 493 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for mechanical engineers on its $112,410 median: $87,910 retained after tax becomes $90,466 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $121,510 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Mechanical Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $75,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $112,410 |
| Top tenth earn over | $175,210 |
| This salary | $112,410 |
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 | $87,910 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $87,910 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,489 |
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 | $112,410 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$8,072 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $112,410 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $75,810 and the ninetieth is $175,210 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $87,910 take-home in Texas comes from $112,410. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 43 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $90,466, the adjusted value of that $112,410 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 43 of 493 in the state.
- The Texas median of $112,410 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $75,810 to $175,210. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $87,910, from $112,410, assumes a single Texas filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 43 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $90,466 — the adjusted value of that $112,410 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 43 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 $121,510, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $75,810 and the top tenth $175,210 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $90,466 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $87,910 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?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 $121,510. 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 ($75,810) and the ninetieth ($175,210) 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 $90,466 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 $87,910 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.