Firefighter Salary in Texas: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A firefighter in Texas earns a median of $60,180 a year, or about $28.94 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the field lands between $40,020 at the 10th percentile and $77,170 at the 90th. Texas has no state income tax, so more of that gross stays in your pocket than it would in most states.

How Texas firefighter pay compares to the national median

The national median for firefighters is $59,280, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Texas sits just above that at $60,180, a gap of $900, or about 1.5 percent more than the typical firefighter nationwide. The state mean is close behind at $60,390, which tells you pay is fairly evenly spread rather than dragged up by a small group of high earners.

Look past the median and the comparison holds across the distribution. Texas firefighters at the 10th percentile earn $40,020, the median is $60,180, and the 90th percentile reaches $77,170. The state mean of $60,390 landing just $210 above the median signals a tight, symmetrical spread without a long tail of outsized earners pulling the average up, which is typical of public-sector pay scales set by contract and step schedules.

That national edge is modest on paper, but it understates the real picture for one reason: Texas takes no state income tax out of your check. A firefighter earning the same $60,180 in a state like California keeps less of it. We break the exact dollar difference down in the take-home section below. Texas also employs a large firefighting workforce, with 28,170 firefighters on the rolls statewide, so the market is deep and departments are spread across both big metros and smaller cities.

Firefighter pay in Texas by experience

Pay climbs steadily as you move from a probationary rookie to a senior firefighter or company officer. The BLS percentile spread is the cleanest way to see that arc. A firefighter at the 10th percentile, typically someone fresh out of the academy in their first year, earns $40,020. By the 25th percentile that rises to $48,680. The median sits at $60,180, the 75th percentile reaches $71,980, and the top 10 percent of Texas firefighters pull in $77,170 or more.

The jump from entry to senior is real money. Moving from the 10th percentile to the 90th is a difference of $37,150, nearly doubling your starting pay. Most of that progression comes from time in grade, scheduled step raises tied to years of service, and promotions into engineer, driver, lieutenant, or captain roles. Picking up a paramedic certification on top of your firefighter credential is one of the most common ways to accelerate through the early percentiles, since dual-role medics are in heavy demand.

One thing worth knowing about firefighter pay: the hourly median of $28.94 is calculated against a standard work schedule, but most firefighters work long shift rotations rather than a regular 40-hour week. Overtime and shift differentials can push actual annual earnings above the base percentile figures, especially for those who pick up extra shifts during staffing shortages or wildfire season.

It’s worth putting the spread in context. The distance from the 10th to the 25th percentile, $40,020 up to $48,680, is $8,660, and it covers roughly the first few years on the job as a probationary firefighter clears certification milestones and earns scheduled step increases. The next leg, from the 25th to the median at $60,180, adds another $11,500 and usually reflects a first promotion or a paramedic credential. From the median to the 75th percentile at $71,980 is $11,800 more, and that band is where rank starts to matter most: drivers, engineers, and company officers cluster here. The final stretch to the 90th percentile at $77,170 is a tighter $5,190, which is typical for public-sector pay where the top of the scale is capped by negotiated contracts rather than open-ended market bidding.

That compression at the top is a useful planning signal. A Texas firefighter who reaches the 75th percentile has already captured most of the available base-pay upside, $71,980 of the $77,170 ceiling. Beyond that point, the way to keep growing income is usually through overtime, special-team assignments, or moving into chief-officer and administrative roles rather than waiting on the next step raise.

For budgeting purposes, the monthly net figures track the same arc. An entry firefighter at $40,020 nets about $2,850 a month, the median earner takes home $4,199, an experienced firefighter at the 75th percentile sees $4,919, and a senior firefighter at the 90th percentile banks $5,223. That is a $2,373 monthly difference between the start and the top of the scale, the gap a career of step raises, certifications, and promotions is built to close.

Firefighter salary by Texas metro

Where you work inside Texas matters more than the statewide median suggests. The five largest metro markets span a range of nearly $16,000 at the median. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington pays the most of the big metros at $64,900 and also employs the most firefighters, 8,780 of them. San Antonio-New Braunfels follows at $63,360. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, the second largest employer with 5,780 firefighters, sits at $59,120. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos comes in at $58,830, and Corpus Christi trails the group at $48,700.

The Dallas-Fort Worth premium is worth weighing carefully. At $64,900, a firefighter there earns $4,720 more than the state median and $16,200 more than one in Corpus Christi. But that gap closes once you factor in housing. The big-metro paychecks tend to track higher local rents and home prices, so a slightly lower median in a cheaper market can stretch further. The number that actually decides your standard of living is net pay minus what you spend on housing, not the headline salary. We come back to that idea in the take-home section.

A few patterns in the metro data are worth calling out. First, employment concentration is high: Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston together account for 14,560 of the state’s 28,170 firefighter jobs, more than half the statewide total. That means most hiring and most lateral-transfer opportunity sits in those two markets, even though San Antonio actually edges out Houston on median pay, $63,360 versus $59,120. Second, pay does not track city size in a straight line. San Antonio, with 2,910 firefighters, pays a higher median than Houston, with 5,780, which shows that local department budgets and union contracts drive pay as much as metro population does.

Austin is the case to watch. At $58,830 it currently sits below the state median, despite being one of the fastest-growing markets in the country with 2,300 firefighters on the rolls. Rapid suburban expansion there typically translates into new stations and steady recruit classes, which is good news for anyone breaking into the field even if the current median lags the bigger metros. Corpus Christi, at $48,700, is the clear outlier on the low end. Its $48,700 median is $11,480 below the statewide figure, so the trade-off there is lower pay against what is generally a lower cost of living on the Gulf Coast.

Firefighter take-home pay in Texas after tax

Gross salary is the number recruiters quote. Take-home is the number that hits your bank account. Because Texas levies no state income tax, a Texas firefighter only loses federal income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare) from each check. Here is the breakdown across the same percentile points, using 2026 tax figures.

The same no-tax advantage scales with income. The $1,856 median-level gap versus California is not a fixed number; higher earners keep even more in Texas because the state tax they avoid would have been larger. A senior Texas firefighter at $77,170 who nets $62,675 would surrender a meaningfully bigger slice in an income-tax state, so the longer you stay and the higher you climb, the more the location compounds in your favor.

At the median, a Texas firefighter takes home $50,393 a year, or about $4,199 a month, after an effective tax rate of 16.3 percent. The zero in the state-tax column is the quiet advantage. Here is the cross-state comparison that makes it concrete: a firefighter earning that same $60,180 median in California would net roughly $48,537 after that state’s income tax, while the Texas firefighter keeps $50,393. That is a gap of $1,856 a year staying in the Texas firefighter’s pocket, purely because of where the station house sits.

Look at how the effective tax rate climbs with income. An entry-level firefighter at $40,020 loses 14.6 percent to federal tax and FICA combined, keeping $34,195, or about $2,850 a month. At the median, the effective rate rises to 16.3 percent. By the 75th percentile of $71,980 it reaches 18.0 percent, leaving $59,024 net, and at the senior $77,170 level it tops out at 18.8 percent with $62,675 banked. The rate creeps up because federal tax is progressive, but notice the state-tax column never moves off zero. In a state with an income tax, that whole column would grow alongside the federal one, which is exactly why the Texas net figures run ahead.

Run the same logic on housing and the picture sharpens. Net pay minus local housing cost is the number that actually matters. A $1,856 tax advantage means little if rent eats it, and a smaller paycheck in a low-cost Texas city can beat a bigger one in an expensive metro. Practically, that means a Corpus Christi firefighter on $48,700 and a Dallas firefighter on $64,900 may end up closer in real spending power than the $16,200 gross gap suggests, once each subtracts local housing. Before you accept an offer, put your exact salary through the Texas paycheck calculator to see your real monthly net, then subtract what housing will cost in that specific city. If you want help estimating withholding or filing across a job change, TurboTax walks you through it line by line.

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How to earn more as a firefighter in Texas

The percentile gap between entry and senior pay, $40,020 up to $77,170, is the roadmap. Closing it is mostly about credentials, rank, and where you work. Concrete steps that move the needle in Texas:

• Add a paramedic certification. Dual firefighter-paramedics are the most sought-after hires in nearly every Texas department, and the credential typically unlocks higher pay steps and faster promotion than a basic EMT level.
• Test for promotion early and often. Moving from firefighter to driver/engineer, then to lieutenant or captain, is the single biggest lever on base pay. Rank progression is what carries people from the median toward the $71,980 and $77,170 marks.
• Target the higher-paying metros. Dallas-Fort Worth at $64,900 and San Antonio at $63,360 pay thousands above smaller markets like Corpus Christi at $48,700. A lateral transfer can be a raise on its own.
• Bank overtime and special-team pay. Hazmat, technical rescue, arson investigation, and wildland assignments often carry stipends, and overtime during staffing gaps adds up on top of the base percentile figures.
• Build toward fire officer and inspector credentials. Self-paced coursework in fire science, emergency management, and leadership through providers like Coursera can support the promotional exams that gate the senior pay bands.

To put real numbers on the strategy: a firefighter sitting at the median of $60,180 who promotes and tests their way to the 75th percentile picks up $11,800 in base pay, landing at $71,980. Reaching the senior $77,170 band adds $16,990 over the median. Those are not abstract raises. They are the difference between netting $50,393 a year and $62,675 a year after tax, a $12,282 swing in take-home that compounds across a 20- to 30-year career and feeds directly into a pension calculation at retirement.

The cross-training angle is the fastest single move for many people. Because an EMT and Paramedic in Texas earns a median of just $37,260 on their own, $22,920 below the firefighter median, medics frequently bring their certification into a fire department where the same skill pays far more. If you already hold a paramedic license, you are arriving with a credential most departments will pay a premium to keep on the truck.

Job outlook for firefighters in Texas

Texas already employs 28,170 firefighters, one of the largest state workforces in the country, and demand is anchored by population growth across the big metros. The Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston markets alone account for 14,560 of those jobs, and fast-growing Austin and San Antonio keep adding stations as their suburbs expand. Firefighting is essential-service work that doesn’t offshore or automate away, so hiring tends to track local growth and retirements rather than economic cycles. If you’re scanning open positions and lateral openings across departments, ZipRecruiter aggregates municipal and district postings in one place.

Related and higher-paying roles in Texas

It helps to see where firefighter pay sits next to the roles people often weigh against it. Compared with the Texas firefighter median of $60,180: an EMT and Paramedic in Texas earns a median of $37,260, which is $22,920 less than a firefighter here, which is part of why so many medics cross-train into firefighting. A Registered Nurse in Texas earns a median of $95,970, or $35,790 more than a firefighter, making it the higher-paying healthcare path for people drawn to emergency work.

Firefighter salary in Texas: FAQ

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS (2025); 2026 federal and FICA tax tables. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.