Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,632
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$7,468
15.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,842
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
$49,100
Kept after tax
$41,632
Worth in national money
$42,842
State rank
47
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for zoologists and wildlife biologists. The middle earner takes $49,100, ranking 47 of 47 states — about 36.05% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 278 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 $49,100 the take-home is $41,632, which is worth about $42,842 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $64,620, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 47 of 47 for zoologists and wildlife biologists, with a median of $49,100 — about 36.05% 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.
- Zoologists and wildlife biologists ranks 278 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 zoologists and wildlife biologists on its $49,100 median: $41,632 retained after tax becomes $42,842 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $64,620 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $106,020 |
| This salary | $49,100 |
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 | $41,632 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $41,632 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,599 |
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 | $49,100 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,347 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of zoologists and wildlife biologists in Texas earn under $49,100 and half over. The published range runs $39,800 at the tenth percentile to $106,020 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $41,632, worked from $49,100. 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 278 of 493.
- Two cautions on $42,842, the adjusted value of that $49,100 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 278 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for zoologists and wildlife biologists in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,800 to $106,020; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Texas take-home of $41,632, on $49,100 for work ranking 278 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 278 of 493 in the state.
- This $42,842 adjusted figure, worked from $49,100, 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 278 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 278 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 $64,620, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $39,800, the highest tenth $106,020, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $42,842 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $41,632 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 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 $64,620. 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 ($39,800) and the ninetieth ($106,020) 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 $42,842 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 $41,632 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.