Average Salary in Texas (TX)

Texas has no state income tax — a fact that consistently shows up in migration surveys as the single biggest draw for relocating professionals and remote workers. The $73,035 median household income ranks around the middle of US states, but that number goes much further in Texas than in most coastal markets: the statewide cost-of-living index of 93 runs 7% below the national average, and metros like San Antonio and El Paso are meaningfully cheaper still. The trade-off is that Texas compensates for the lack of income tax with above-average property taxes — effective rates sit around 1.6 to 1.9 percent depending on the county, among the highest in the country. The state minimum wage stays at the federal $7.25 floor, so low-end wage growth depends entirely on market forces; in practice, tight labour markets in Austin, Dallas, and Houston have pushed actual starting wages well above that figure. The economy is a three-legged stool: energy (still the largest single export category), technology (Austin's corporate migration of the past decade), and healthcare (the Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest in the world). The full breakdown of income, employment, and tax context for Texas follows.