Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers in Texas

Machined metal parts and a CNC machine in a clean manufacturing workshop.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$45,039

after federal, FICA and Texas tax

Tax takes

$8,301

15.6% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$46,348

Texas costs less than average

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

$53,340

Kept after tax

$45,039

Worth in national money

$46,348

State rank

29

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Neither high nor low. Texas is 29 of 51 states for this job, with a middle wage of $53,340. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
  • Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 248 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 $53,340 the take-home is $45,039, which is worth about $46,348 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $56,940, because the best-paid pull it up.
  • Texas ranks 29 of 51 for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers at $53,340. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
  • Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers ranks 248 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 welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers on its $53,340 median: $45,039 retained after tax becomes $46,348 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $56,940 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$38,380
Half earn under$53,340
Top tenth earn over$80,240
This salary$53,340

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

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Florida
Take-home in Texas$45,039
Take-home in Florida$45,039
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$2,812

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

Moving to
$0$56,961
$56,961in Florida, for the same life
To match take-home only$53,340
Raise you would need+$3,621
Prices in Florida103 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 $53,340. The published range is $38,380 up to $80,240, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $45,039, worked from $53,340. 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 248 of 493.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $46,348, the adjusted value of that $53,340 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 248 of 493 in the state.
  • Reported values are medians; for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $38,380 to $80,240. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • The Texas take-home of $45,039, on $53,340 for work ranking 248 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 248 of 493 in the state.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $46,348 — the adjusted value of that $53,340 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 248 of 493 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $56,940, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

Why is the pay range for this job so wide?

One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,380, the highest tenth $80,240, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.

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 $46,348.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

No. $45,039 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.

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 $56,940. 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 ($38,380) and the ninetieth ($80,240) 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 $46,348 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 $45,039 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.