Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,489
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$8,901
15.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,870
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
$56,390
Kept after tax
$47,489
Worth in national money
$48,870
State rank
45
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $56,390. That is 45 of 51 states, and about 3.56% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Texas reports figures for, this is number 239.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $56,390, tax leaves $47,489, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,870 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $58,240, since top earners drag the number up.
- For postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators, Texas sits in the lower band at $56,390, ranking 45 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 3.56%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- In Texas's occupational distribution, postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators sits at 239 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators — median $56,390 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $47,489 retained, $48,870 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $58,240 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,390 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,280 |
| This salary | $56,390 |
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 | $47,489 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $47,489 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,965 |
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 | $56,390 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,818 |
| 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 postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators in Texas earn under $56,390 and half over. The published range runs $40,600 at the tenth percentile to $75,280 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $47,489 take-home in Texas comes from $56,390. 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 239 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,870, the adjusted value of that $56,390 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 239 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $40,600 to $75,280; 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.
- Retained pay of $47,489, from $56,390, 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 239 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 45 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $48,870 — the adjusted value of that $56,390 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 239 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 $58,240, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $40,600 at the bottom tenth to $75,280 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $48,870.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $47,489 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 $58,240. 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 ($40,600 to $75,280) 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 $48,870 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 $47,489 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.