The Average Salary in Texas: How’s Does Your Paycheck Compare?

Texas is a state that was built on hard work. There are many stories across the Lone Star State where hard-working folks proved that in America, you have the right to be as unequal as you choose to be. A lot of times those success stories written in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Amarillo, Lubbock, and El Paso came with a lot of sweat and even more dedication to doing what's right. 

And while Texans are not strangers to hard work, we are often strangers to the most compensation our chosen professions can offer. Have you ever wondered how the money you make might compare to the paychecks of folks in the Northeast, Midwest, or West Coast? How does your money compare to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, or the perennial dumpster fire that is Mississippi?

The folks at SoFi have crunched the numbers from the Social Security Administration and determined that the average salary in the United States is $63,795.00 annually. Based on that information you're either feeling pretty good about what you earn or you're suddenly feeling frustrated because you work harder than "an average worker".

The first thing to consider in the $63,795.00 figure is that is for the United States as a whole. That includes places where the cost of living is a lot higher than what we pay in Texas and the Gulf South.

Just as a point of clarity, you often hear the terms "average salary" and "median salary". While they sound like they should be the same, they aren't. With averages, you have to consider the extreme highs and the extreme lows. For example, if you have a lot of billionaires in your state, that state's average salary could be skewed higher.

Meanwhile, a median salary is the middle value of all salaries in a specific industry or job category. This figure is affected less by outliers such as extreme wealth and extreme poverty. For example, the median salary in the United States is listed at $59,384.00 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And you can see that is a few thousand dollars less than the $63,795.00 that is the SSA average for the U.S.

What is the Average Salary In Texas?

This won't surprise anyone but we are not at the top when it comes to discussing this data. The places with the highest average salaries are the places with the highest cost of living. Namley, Massachusettes, New York, Washington, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland.

If you're looking for Texas, look lower. But not as low as Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Alabama which are well beneath us in that category. So, how much money are we talking about? The average salary in Texas according to Sofi is $61,235. The median salary in Texas is listed at $61,460.

For comparison in Massachusetts, the average salary is $80,330, and the average salary in Mississippi is $47,569. That's a pretty big difference. But if you suddenly feel motivated to move to a place where you could earn more money, just know, most of the time that comes with a higher cost of living.

Perhaps, we should look at quality of life over how much money we make to earn a living. You can certainly find happiness without a lot of zeroes in your bank account. It's all in how you look at it. Money can't buy happiness but it certainly can distract you while you're miserable.

Just as a side note, tonight's Powerball is $142 million if you really want to mess up the averages. Good Luck, I will see you at work in the morning.