Opticians, Dispensing in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,292
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$5,428
14.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,259
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
$38,720
Kept after tax
$33,292
Worth in national money
$34,259
State rank
46
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for opticians, dispensing is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $38,720. That is 46 of 51 states, and about 18.07% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 493 occupations Texas publishes, opticians, dispensing lands at 398. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $38,720, tax leaves $33,292, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $34,259 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $42,650, since top earners drag the number up.
- For opticians, dispensing, Texas sits in the lower band at $38,720, ranking 46 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 18.07%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Texas, this work ranks 398 of 493 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for opticians, dispensing — median $38,720 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $33,292 retained, $34,259 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $42,650 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Opticians, Dispensing
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,240 |
| This salary | $38,720 |
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 | $33,292 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $33,292 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,079 |
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 | $38,720 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,676 |
| 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 opticians, dispensing in Texas earn under $38,720 and half over. The published range runs $29,970 at the tenth percentile to $58,240 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $33,292, from $38,720, 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 398 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $34,259, the adjusted value of that $38,720 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 398 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for opticians, dispensing in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $29,970 to $58,240; 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 $33,292 from $38,720. 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 398 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $34,259 — the adjusted value of that $38,720 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 398 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 $42,650 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $29,970 at the bottom tenth to $58,240 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $34,259.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $33,292 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 $42,650. 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 ($29,970) and the ninetieth ($58,240) 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 $34,259 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 $33,292 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.