Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,164
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$3,686
12.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,925
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
$29,850
Kept after tax
$26,164
Worth in national money
$26,925
State rank
39
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $29,850, ranking 39 of 51 states — about 18.84% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Measured against other jobs in Texas, this one sits low: 473 of 493 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $29,850, tax leaves $26,164, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $26,925 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $31,390, since top earners drag the number up.
- Texas ranks 39 of 51 for teaching assistants, except postsecondary, with a median of $29,850 — about 18.84% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Teaching assistants, except postsecondary occupies position 473 of 493 in Texas's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for teaching assistants, except postsecondary — median $29,850 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $26,164 retained, $26,925 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $31,390 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $22,480 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,850 |
| Top tenth earn over | $42,520 |
| This salary | $29,850 |
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 | $26,164 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $26,164 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,634 |
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 | $29,850 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,103 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $29,850 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $22,480 and the ninetieth is $42,520 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $26,164, worked from $29,850. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 473 of 493.
- Two cautions on $26,925, the adjusted value of that $29,850 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 473 of 493 locally.
- The Texas median of $29,850 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $22,480 to $42,520. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Texas take-home of $26,164, on $29,850 for work ranking 473 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 473 of 493 in the state.
- This $26,925 adjusted figure, worked from $29,850, 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 473 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 473 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 $31,390 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $22,480 and the top tenth $42,520, so most people doing this work in Texas sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $26,925 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $26,164 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.
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 $31,390. 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 ($22,480 to $42,520) 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 $26,925 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 $26,164 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.