Tour and Travel Guides in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,760
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$4,320
13.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,596
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
$33,080
Kept after tax
$28,760
Worth in national money
$29,596
State rank
37
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for tour and travel guides. The middle earner takes $33,080, ranking 37 of 50 states — about 13.22% 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: 457 of 493 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $33,080, tax leaves $28,760, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $29,596 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $38,680, since top earners drag the number up.
- Texas ranks 37 of 50 for tour and travel guides, with a median of $33,080 — about 13.22% 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.
- Tour and travel guides occupies position 457 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 tour and travel guides — median $33,080 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $28,760 retained, $29,596 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $38,680 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Tour and Travel Guides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $33,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,910 |
| This salary | $33,080 |
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 | $28,760 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $28,760 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,796 |
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 | $33,080 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,312 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $33,080 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $23,600 and the ninetieth is $63,910 — 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 $28,760, worked from $33,080. 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 457 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $29,596 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 457.
- The Texas median of $33,080 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $23,600 to $63,910. 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 $28,760, on $33,080 for work ranking 457 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 457 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $29,596, worked from $33,080, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Texas address, on work sitting at 457 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $38,680, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $23,600 and the top tenth $63,910 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $29,596.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $28,760 of this wage reaches your account, because Texas takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $38,680. 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 ($23,600) and the ninetieth ($63,910) 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 $29,596 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 $28,760 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.