Food Service Manager Salary in Texas: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A food service manager in Texas earns a median of $60,770 a year, or about $29.21 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the field sits between $48,750 (25th percentile) and $75,800 (75th percentile), and Texas charges no state income tax, so more of that pay stays in your pocket than in most states.

How Texas pay compares to the national median

The national median for food service managers is $69,390, per BLS (2025). Texas pays a median of $60,770, which is $8,620 below the national figure, or about 12.4 percent less in headline terms. That gap looks worse than it lives, because the national number is pulled up by high-cost states like California and New York, and because Texas takes nothing in state income tax.

It helps to separate two different “average” numbers. The median ($60,770) is the middle paycheck: half of Texas food service managers earn more, half earn less. The mean, or simple average, is higher at $66,260, because a smaller group of high earners at the top stretches the average upward. When a recruiter or a salary site quotes you an “average” of $66,000, that is the mean. The median is the more honest target for a typical manager, so that is the number to anchor on.

Texas also employs a lot of these managers. The state counts 25,990 food service manager jobs, one of the largest pools in the country. A deep market means more openings, more lateral moves, and more room to negotiate when you already have a couple of years behind you. Once you factor in the zero percent state tax and a lower cost of living than the coastal states, the real spending power of a Texas paycheck closes much of that headline gap, a point the take-home section below makes concrete.

Food service manager pay in Texas by experience

Experience moves this number more than almost anything else. A new manager running a single shift at a quick-service location starts near the bottom of the range. A seasoned general manager overseeing a full-service restaurant, a hotel kitchen, or a multi-unit territory lands near the top. BLS reports the full percentile spread for Texas, and it is wide: from $43,310 at the 10th percentile to $98,570 at the 90th. That is a $55,260 spread between the bottom and top of the field in the same state.

The jump from early career to median is about $12,020 ($48,750 to $60,770), and the jump from median to experienced is about $15,030 ($60,770 to $75,800). Those are the two raises worth planning for. Getting from the 25th to the 50th percentile usually means proving you can run labor cost, food cost, and a schedule without supervision. Getting from the median to the 75th usually means taking on profit-and-loss responsibility for a whole location, or moving from a casual concept into full-service, hotel, or contract food service, where budgets and accountability are bigger. The senior tier near $98,570 generally belongs to general managers of high-volume operations or area managers with several units reporting to them.

One useful way to read this table is to convert it back to an hourly figure, because many food service managers think in shifts and hours. The entry $43,310 works out to roughly $20.82 an hour, the median $60,770 to $29.21, and the senior $98,570 to about $47.39. So moving from the bottom of the field to the top more than doubles the hourly rate for the same job title. That is unusual. In a lot of occupations the gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is narrower. The width here, $43,310 to $98,570, tells you that the title “food service manager” covers everything from a shift lead at a single counter-service unit to a seasoned operator running a multimillion-dollar kitchen, and that the path between them is real and walkable inside Texas.

Worth noting too: the mean of $66,260 sits above the median of $60,770 but below the 75th percentile of $75,800. That tells you the distribution leans toward the bottom and middle, with a thinner, higher-paid tail above. In plain terms, more managers cluster in the $48,000 to $61,000 band than in the $76,000-plus band, which is exactly why deliberate moves toward the upper tier pay off so well.

Food service manager salary by Texas metro

Where you work inside Texas matters. The big three metros, Austin, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth, all pay above the state median, while smaller and border markets pay below it. Austin tops the list at a $62,930 median, and El Paso sits lowest at $49,840. That is a $13,090 spread from the highest-paying metro to the lowest, for the same job title, inside one state.

Dallas-Fort Worth holds the largest concentration of jobs at 6,710, followed by Houston at 5,030. Together those two metros account for 11,740 of the state’s 25,990 food service manager jobs, nearly half the entire Texas total. If you want the most openings and the most room to job-hop for a raise, those two metros are where the volume is. Austin pays the highest median at $62,930 but has a smaller job pool at 3,100, and a higher cost of living that eats into the premium. San Antonio and El Paso pay less in raw dollars, but housing and daily costs in those markets are lower too, so a $58,410 paycheck in San Antonio can stretch close to a $62,000 paycheck in Austin once rent is paid. Always read a metro number next to its local housing cost, never on its own.

The five metros in the table cover about 18,540 jobs combined, which means roughly 7,450 more food service manager jobs sit outside the major metros, in smaller Texas cities, suburbs, and rural counties. Those areas were not broken out separately in the BLS Texas metro data, but the statewide median of $60,770 is the best single benchmark for them. If you are weighing an offer in a smaller market like Lubbock, Waco, Corpus Christi, or the Rio Grande Valley, treat the $58,410 San Antonio figure and the $49,840 El Paso figure as your realistic bookends, then adjust for how high the cost of living runs locally.

Take-home pay after tax in Texas

Headline salary is not what hits your bank account. Federal income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare) come out of every check. The good news for Texas: there is no state income tax, so that column is $0 at every income level. The table below runs the four career-stage salaries through 2026 federal and FICA estimates for a single filer taking the standard deduction.

At the Texas median of $60,770, the effective tax rate works out to about 16.3 percent, leaving $50,867 a year in net pay, or roughly $4,239 a month. An entry-level manager at $43,310 keeps about $36,838 (a 14.9 percent effective rate), and a senior manager at $98,570 keeps about $77,730 (a 21.1 percent rate, because more income falls in higher federal brackets). The state-tax column staying at $0 across every row is the whole reason these net numbers run higher than they would in most of the country.

Here is the comparison that a national salary site will not show you. Take the same $60,770 salary and earn it in California instead of Texas. A single filer there keeps about $48,976 after federal, FICA, and California state income tax. In Texas, the same salary nets $50,867. That is a real, in-pocket gap of $1,891 a year for identical gross pay, entirely because Texas charges no state income tax and California does. Over a decade in the role, that is close to $19,000 in extra take-home from the tax code alone, before you even account for cheaper housing in most Texas markets.

Look at how the effective rate climbs as pay rises: 14.9 percent at entry, 16.3 percent at the median, 18.6 percent at the experienced level, and 21.1 percent for senior managers. That rise is entirely federal, since FICA is a flat 7.65 percent of wages and Texas state tax stays at $0 the whole way up. The practical takeaway is that a raise from the median to the 75th percentile, a $15,030 bump in gross pay, lands as about $10,844 more in net annual pay ($50,867 to $61,711). You keep most of each raise, but not all of it, because the extra dollars are taxed at a higher federal bracket than your first dollars were.

The number that actually matters for your life is net pay minus local housing. A $50,867 take-home in El Paso or San Antonio, where rents run well below the coastal average, buys far more month to month than the same take-home in a pricier metro. Run your own figure, with your filing status and any retirement contributions, through the Texas paycheck calculator before you judge an offer. When tax season comes, filing software like TurboTax can help you check withholding and claim every deduction you are owed.

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How to earn more as a food service manager in Texas

The percentile table shows the ceiling is high: the top 10 percent of Texas food service managers clear $98,570. Closing the distance between the median and that top tier is a matter of deliberate moves, not waiting. Here is what actually shifts the number.

• Move into full-service, hotel, or contract food service. Quick-service roles cluster near the bottom of the range. Full-service restaurants, hotel food and beverage, hospitals, universities, and contract caterers carry bigger budgets and pay managers more to run them.
• Take real profit-and-loss ownership. The jump from the median ($60,770) to the experienced 75th percentile ($75,800) almost always tracks with owning a location’s full budget, labor cost, and food cost, not just running shifts.
• Earn a recognized credential. A ServSafe Food Protection Manager certification is table stakes in Texas, and certificates in hospitality management, operations, or financial analysis help you stand out for multi-unit roles. Short, employer-relevant courses through Coursera in restaurant operations, accounting, or people management map directly to the skills that move you up a tier.
• Target the higher-paying metros. Austin ($62,930), Houston ($62,200), and Dallas-Fort Worth ($61,760) all pay above the state median. Houston and DFW also hold the most jobs, so they give you both a pay premium and the volume to negotiate.
• Move to multi-unit management. Area and district roles overseeing several locations are where the senior $98,570 figures live. Build a track record of hitting numbers at one unit, then ask to take on a second.
• Job-hop on purpose. With 25,990 of these jobs in Texas, an internal raise is often smaller than the bump you get by moving to a competitor that needs your proven experience. Use a deep market to your advantage.

Job outlook for food service managers in Texas

Texas runs one of the largest food service management workforces in the nation, with 25,990 people in the role as of the BLS (2025) reading. A pool that size means steady turnover at the top, regular openings as restaurants, hotels, and contract operators expand, and clear lateral paths between concepts. The heaviest concentrations sit in Dallas-Fort Worth (6,710 jobs) and Houston (5,030 jobs), with Austin (3,100) and San Antonio (2,880) close behind, so the metros with the most pay also tend to have the most hiring. If you are actively looking, a board like ZipRecruiter lets you filter Texas food service manager roles by metro and pay so you can compare offers against the percentile table above.

Related and higher-paying roles in Texas

If you have the operations, budgeting, and people-management skills of a food service manager, a few adjacent Texas roles pay meaningfully more. Both of the related roles below clear the food service manager median of $60,770 by a wide margin, according to BLS (2025) Texas figures.

A purchasing agent in Texas earns a median of $76,050, which is $15,280 more than a food service manager in Texas. The vendor negotiation, cost control, and inventory work you already do as a food service manager carry over well into purchasing. An industrial production manager earns a median of $130,890, a full $70,120 more than a food service manager here, though that role usually requires a manufacturing or operations background rather than a hospitality one. Both are worth knowing about if you want to redirect operations experience toward higher pay.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2025; ThePayGuide 2026 federal and FICA take-home estimates. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.