Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,968
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$15,252
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$67,886
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
$81,220
Kept after tax
$65,968
Worth in national money
$67,886
State rank
23
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Texas is 23 of 46 states for this job, with a middle wage of $81,220. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Texas. It ranks 108 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $81,220 the take-home is $65,968, which is worth about $67,886 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $89,210, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 23 of 46 for sociology teachers, postsecondary at $81,220. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Within Texas, sociology teachers, postsecondary ranks 108 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.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for sociology teachers, postsecondary on its $81,220 median: $65,968 retained after tax becomes $67,886 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $89,210 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,130 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $81,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $133,610 |
| This salary | $81,220 |
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 | $65,968 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $65,968 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,119 |
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 | $81,220 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$6,057 |
| 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 sociology teachers, postsecondary in Texas earn under $81,220 and half over. The published range runs $47,130 at the tenth percentile to $133,610 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $65,968, from $81,220, 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 108 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $67,886, the adjusted value of that $81,220 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 108 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for sociology teachers, postsecondary in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $47,130 to $133,610; 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.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $65,968 from $81,220. 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 108 of 493 locally.
- This $67,886 adjusted figure, worked from $81,220, 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 108 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 108 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 $89,210 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $47,130 and the top tenth $133,610 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $67,886 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $65,968 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?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 $89,210. 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 ($47,130) and the ninetieth ($133,610) 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 $67,886 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 $65,968 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.