Power Plant Operators in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$80,946
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$21,564
21.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$83,299
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
$102,510
Kept after tax
$80,946
Worth in national money
$83,299
State rank
24
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Texas pays power plant operators around $102,510 at the midpoint, 24 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Texas. It ranks 57 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $102,510, tax leaves $80,946, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $83,299 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $97,000.
- For power plant operators the Texas median is $102,510, ranking 24 of 49 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.
- Within Texas, power plant operators ranks 57 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.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for power plant operators — median $102,510 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $80,946 retained, $83,299 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $97,000 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Power Plant Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $55,500 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $102,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $127,710 |
| This salary | $102,510 |
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 | $80,946 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $80,946 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,054 |
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 | $102,510 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,432 |
| 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 power plant operators in Texas earn under $102,510 and half over. The published range runs $55,500 at the tenth percentile to $127,710 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $80,946, worked from $102,510. 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 57 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $83,299 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 57.
- Figures are distribution medians for power plant operators in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $55,500 to $127,710; 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.
- The Texas take-home of $80,946, on $102,510 for work ranking 57 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 57 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $83,299, worked from $102,510, 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 57 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 $97,000 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $55,500 at the bottom tenth to $127,710 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 $83,299.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $80,946 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $97,000. 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 ($55,500 to $127,710) 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 $83,299 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 $80,946 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.