Waiters and Waitresses in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$20,748
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$2,492
10.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$21,351
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
$23,240
Kept after tax
$20,748
Worth in national money
$21,351
State rank
45
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Texas pays waiters and waitresses a middle wage of $23,240, 45 of 51 states and about 34.03% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Texas this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, waiters and waitresses ranks 491. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $23,240 the take-home is $20,748, which is worth about $21,351 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $29,750, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas's $23,240 median for waiters and waitresses places it 45 of 51 states, about 34.03% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Texas reports, waiters and waitresses ranks 491 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for waiters and waitresses on its $23,240 median: $20,748 retained after tax becomes $21,351 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $29,750 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Waiters and Waitresses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $17,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $23,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,590 |
| This salary | $23,240 |
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 | $20,748 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $20,748 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,296 |
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 | $23,240 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,627 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $23,240 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $17,070 and the ninetieth is $47,590 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $20,748, from $23,240, 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 491 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $21,351, the adjusted value of that $23,240 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 491 of 493 in the state.
- The Texas median of $23,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $17,070 to $47,590. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $20,748 from $23,240. 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 491 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $21,351 — the adjusted value of that $23,240 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 491 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 $29,750, 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 $17,070 and the top tenth $47,590 — 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 $21,351.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $20,748 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.
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 $29,750. 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 ($17,070) and the ninetieth ($47,590) 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 $21,351 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 $20,748 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.