Surgical Technologists in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,584
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$10,636
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,171
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
$65,220
Kept after tax
$54,584
Worth in national money
$56,171
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas sits in the middle of the pack for surgical technologists. The median is $65,220, ranking 21 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 169 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $65,220 the take-home is $54,584, which is worth about $56,171 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $66,640, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas occupies the middle band for surgical technologists: a median of $65,220, ranking 21 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Surgical technologists ranks 169 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.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for surgical technologists on its $65,220 median: $54,584 retained after tax becomes $56,171 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $66,640 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Surgical Technologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $65,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,580 |
| This salary | $65,220 |
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 | $54,584 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $54,584 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,408 |
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 | $65,220 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,830 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Texas earn less than $65,220. The published range is $39,950 up to $92,580, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $54,584 take-home in Texas comes from $65,220. 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 169 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $56,171, the adjusted value of that $65,220 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 169 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for surgical technologists in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $39,950 to $92,580. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $54,584, from $65,220, 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 169 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $56,171 — the adjusted value of that $65,220 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 169 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $39,950, the highest tenth $92,580, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $56,171 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $54,584 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?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($39,950) and the ninetieth ($92,580) 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 $56,171 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 $54,584 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.