Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,921
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$7,539
15.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,140
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
$49,460
Kept after tax
$41,921
Worth in national money
$43,140
State rank
41
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $49,460, ranking 41 of 50 states — about 17.59% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Texas reports figures for, this is number 274.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $49,460 the take-home is $41,921, which is worth about $43,140 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $51,920, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 41 of 50 for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators, with a median of $49,460 — about 17.59% 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.
- In Texas's occupational distribution, water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators sits at 274 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators on its $49,460 median: $41,921 retained after tax becomes $43,140 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $51,920 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,550 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,270 |
| This salary | $49,460 |
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 | $41,921 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $41,921 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,618 |
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 | $49,460 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,370 |
| 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 $49,460. The published range is $36,550 up to $70,270, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $41,921 take-home in Texas comes from $49,460. 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 274 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $43,140, the adjusted value of that $49,460 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 274 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,550 to $70,270. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $41,921, from $49,460, 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 274 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $43,140 — the adjusted value of that $49,460 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 274 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 $51,920 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $36,550 at the tenth percentile, $70,270 at the ninetieth.
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 $43,140.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $41,921 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $51,920. 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 ($36,550 to $70,270) 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 $43,140 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 $41,921 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.