Sheet Metal Workers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,762
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$8,478
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,092
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
$54,240
Kept after tax
$45,762
Worth in national money
$47,092
State rank
38
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Texas pays sheet metal workers a middle wage of $54,240, 38 of 50 states and about 12.23% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 246 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $54,240, take-home of $45,762 is worth roughly $47,092 in national money. The average comes to $56,500, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Texas's $54,240 median for sheet metal workers places it 38 of 50 states, about 12.23% 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.
- Sheet metal workers ranks 246 of 493 occupations in Texas by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for sheet metal workers, whose median is $54,240, the adjusted figure of $47,092 differs little from $45,762 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $56,500 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: Sheet Metal Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,400 |
| This salary | $54,240 |
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 | $45,762 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $45,762 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,857 |
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 | $54,240 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,679 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $54,240 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,010 and the ninetieth is $78,400 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $45,762 take-home in Texas comes from $54,240. 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 246 of 493.
- Two cautions on $47,092, the adjusted value of that $54,240 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 246 of 493 locally.
- The Texas median of $54,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,010 to $78,400. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $45,762, from $54,240, 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 246 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 50 for it.
- This $47,092 adjusted figure, worked from $54,240, 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 246 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 246 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 $56,500, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,010, the highest tenth $78,400, 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 $47,092 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $45,762 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 50 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 $56,500. 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 ($37,010) and the ninetieth ($78,400) 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 $47,092 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 $45,762 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.