Special Education Teachers, Secondary School in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,271
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$10,559
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,849
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
$64,830
Kept after tax
$54,271
Worth in national money
$55,849
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Texas pays this job around $64,830 at the midpoint, 25 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 174 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $64,830, tax leaves $54,271, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $55,849 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $66,450, since top earners drag the number up.
- For special education teachers, secondary school the Texas median is $64,830, ranking 25 of 51 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.
- Special education teachers, secondary school ranks 174 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.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for special education teachers, secondary school — median $64,830 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $54,271 retained, $55,849 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $66,450 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,270 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,830 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,700 |
| This salary | $64,830 |
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 | $54,271 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $54,271 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,389 |
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 | $64,830 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,746 |
| 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 special education teachers, secondary school in Texas earn under $64,830 and half over. The published range runs $52,270 at the tenth percentile to $77,700 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $54,271 take-home in Texas comes from $64,830. 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 174 of 493.
- Two cautions on $55,849, the adjusted value of that $64,830 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 174 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for special education teachers, secondary school in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $52,270 to $77,700; 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 $54,271, from $64,830, 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 174 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- This $55,849 adjusted figure, worked from $64,830, 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 174 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 174 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $52,270 at the bottom tenth to $77,700 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $55,849.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $54,271 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?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($52,270 to $77,700) 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 $55,849 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 $54,271 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.