Security Guards in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,090
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$4,890
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,994
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
$35,980
Kept after tax
$31,090
Worth in national money
$31,994
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Texas pays security guards a middle wage of $35,980, 40 of 51 states and about 5.37% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Texas this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, security guards ranks 436. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $35,980, take-home of $31,090 is worth roughly $31,994 in national money. The average comes to $38,550, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Texas's $35,980 median for security guards places it 40 of 51 states, about 5.37% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Texas reports, security guards ranks 436 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for security guards, whose median is $35,980, the adjusted figure of $31,994 differs little from $31,090 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $38,550 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Security Guards
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,980 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,740 |
| This salary | $35,980 |
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 | $31,090 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $31,090 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,941 |
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 | $35,980 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,499 |
| 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 security guards in Texas earn under $35,980 and half over. The published range runs $26,950 at the tenth percentile to $50,740 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $31,090 take-home in Texas comes from $35,980. 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 436 of 493.
- Two cautions on $31,994, the adjusted value of that $35,980 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 436 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for security guards in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $26,950 to $50,740; 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 $31,090, from $35,980, 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 436 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 40 of 51 for it.
- This $31,994 adjusted figure, worked from $35,980, 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 436 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 436 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 $38,550, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $26,950 and the top tenth $50,740, so most people doing this work in Texas sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $31,994 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $31,090 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 $38,550. 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 ($26,950 to $50,740) 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 $31,994 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 $31,090 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.