Recreation Workers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,471
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$4,249
13.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,298
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
$32,720
Kept after tax
$28,471
Worth in national money
$29,298
State rank
35
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for recreation workers is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $32,720. That is 35 of 51 states, and about 10.5% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 493 occupations Texas publishes, recreation workers lands at 461. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $32,720, take-home of $28,471 is worth roughly $29,298 in national money. The average comes to $35,620, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For recreation workers, Texas sits in the lower band at $32,720, ranking 35 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 10.5%. 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 461 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.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for recreation workers, whose median is $32,720, the adjusted figure of $29,298 differs little from $28,471 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $35,620 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Recreation Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $22,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $32,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,870 |
| This salary | $32,720 |
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 | $28,471 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $28,471 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,778 |
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 | $32,720 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,289 |
| 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 recreation workers in Texas earn under $32,720 and half over. The published range runs $22,910 at the tenth percentile to $47,870 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $28,471 take-home in Texas comes from $32,720. 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 461 of 493.
- Two cautions on $29,298, the adjusted value of that $32,720 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Texas. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 461 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for recreation workers in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $22,910 to $47,870; 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 $28,471, from $32,720, 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 461 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 51 for it.
- This $29,298 adjusted figure, worked from $32,720, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 461 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 461 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 $35,620, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $22,910, the highest tenth $47,870, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $29,298 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $28,471 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 $35,620. 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 ($22,910) and the ninetieth ($47,870) 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 $29,298 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 $28,471 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.