Private Detectives and Investigators in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,809
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$8,001
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,083
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
$51,810
Kept after tax
$43,809
Worth in national money
$45,083
State rank
20
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Texas pays this job around $51,810 at the midpoint, 20 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 258 among 493 occupations Texas publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $51,810, tax leaves $43,809, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $45,083 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $58,670, since top earners drag the number up.
- For private detectives and investigators the Texas median is $51,810, ranking 20 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.
- Position 258 of 493 in Texas places private detectives and investigators in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for private detectives and investigators — median $51,810 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $43,809 retained, $45,083 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $58,670 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Private Detectives and Investigators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,810 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,930 |
| This salary | $51,810 |
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 | $43,809 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $43,809 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,735 |
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 | $51,810 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,522 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Texas earn less than $51,810. The published range is $35,650 up to $99,930, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $43,809, from $51,810, 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 258 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 $45,083 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 258.
- Reported values are medians; for private detectives and investigators in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,650 to $99,930. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $43,809 from $51,810. 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 258 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $45,083, worked from $51,810, 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 258 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 $58,670, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $35,650 at the bottom tenth to $99,930 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Texas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $45,083 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $43,809 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.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 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 $58,670. 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 ($35,650) and the ninetieth ($99,930) 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 $45,083 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 $43,809 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.