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

A radiologic technologist in Texas earns a median salary of $78,630 a year, or about $37.80 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most rad techs in the state land between $48,550 at the 10th percentile and $102,630 at the 90th. Texas has no state income tax, so more of that paycheck stays with you than it would in most states.

How Texas pay compares to the national median

The national median for radiologic technologists is $80,110 a year, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Texas sits just below that at $78,630, a gap of $1,480. On paper, that makes Texas look like a slightly below-average state for this job. The pay number alone misses the real story, though.

Texas charges no state income tax. In a state like California, a rad tech earning the same gross loses a chunk of every paycheck to state withholding before the money ever hits a bank account. In Texas, that line is zero. So even though the headline Texas median trails the national figure by $1,480, the take-home math often comes out ahead of higher-listed states. We break that out dollar for dollar in the take-home section below.

The state mean, or average, sits at $78,060. The mean running close to the median tells you pay is fairly evenly spread across the workforce here, without a small group of very high earners dragging the average up. Texas employs about 20,250 radiologic technologists, one of the largest workforces for this role in the country, which keeps demand steady and gives techs real bargaining power when they switch employers.

It also helps to see the gap in context. The Texas median of $78,630 is 1.8% below the national median of $80,110. That is a rounding error compared with the swing between metros inside Texas itself, where the highest-paying large metro pays $8,590 more than the lowest. In plain terms: the state you work in matters far less for a Texas rad tech than the city and the employer you choose. The national comparison is a starting line, not a verdict, and the rest of this page is about what moves the number from there.

One more thing the national figure hides. A median is the midpoint, so half of all Texas rad techs earn more than $78,630 and half earn less. The 25th percentile of $63,210 and the 75th of $93,830 mark the middle half of the workforce, a $30,620 band that captures most working techs. If your offer falls inside that range, you are in normal territory. If it sits below $63,210, that is a sign you are either early career or being underpaid for your experience, and the next section shows you which.

Radiologic technologist salary in Texas by experience

Experience is the single biggest lever on rad tech pay in Texas. A new graduate fresh off the registry exam starts near the bottom of the range. A senior tech with a decade in, multiple modality certifications, and shift differentials can sit near the top. The table below maps the BLS percentile points to the career stages they line up with.

The jump from entry to median is the steepest part of the curve. A tech moves from $48,550 to $78,630 over the first several years, a $30,080 climb that usually comes from finishing orientation, picking up call shifts, and adding a second modality like CT or MRI. After the median, gains slow but stay real: the move from the 75th percentile at $93,830 to the 90th at $102,630 is an $8,800 step that typically rewards specialization, charge-tech roles, or moving into a hospital that pays a premium for hard-to-staff shifts.

The full spread from entry to senior is $54,080. That is a wide range for a single job title, and it tells you the credential alone is a floor, not a ceiling. What you do after you pass the ARRT registry decides where in that band you end up.

Translate the annual figures into hourly and the picture sharpens. An entry tech at $48,550 earns about $23.34 an hour. A senior tech at $102,630 earns about $49.34. That is more than double the starting rate, and it is the same person, same registry, often the same department. The difference is years, modalities, and shift choices. For a tech deciding whether the extra training is worth it, that doubling is the answer in one number.

The early-career stretch deserves its own note. The move from the 10th percentile at $48,550 to the 25th at $63,210 is a $14,660 jump, and it usually happens fast, often inside the first two to three years. Most of it comes from finishing your probationary period, getting comfortable on the floor, and starting to pick up the differentials and call shifts that newer techs are still ramping into. If your pay has been flat for more than a couple of years near the bottom of the band, that is a signal to either add a credential or test the market with another employer.

Radiologic technologist salary by Texas metro

Where you work inside Texas changes the number more than most people expect. The metro spread runs from the high $70,000s in coastal Corpus Christi to the mid $80,000s in Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth. The five largest metro workforces are below, ranked by median pay.

Austin tops the list at $83,870, edging out Dallas-Fort Worth at $83,140. Both pay well above the state median of $78,630, by $5,240 and $4,510 respectively. That premium reflects tight labor markets and a heavy concentration of large hospital systems competing for the same techs.

Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are the volume centers. Between them they employ 10,470 of the state’s roughly 20,250 radiologic technologists, more than half the entire Texas workforce. If you want the widest pick of employers, from level-one trauma centers to outpatient imaging chains, those two metros give you the most options and the most room to negotiate.

San Antonio-New Braunfels lands almost exactly on the state median at $78,070, just $560 under the statewide $78,630, with a workforce of 1,630 techs. That makes it a useful benchmark city. If you are getting an offer there, you can read it against the state median as a near apples-to-apples comparison without worrying about a big metro premium or discount baked in.

Corpus Christi sits at the bottom at $75,280, which is $3,350 under the state median and $8,590 under Austin. Before you write off a lower-paying metro, weigh it against housing. A smaller coastal market with cheaper rent can leave you with more spendable income than a higher headline number in Austin, where housing costs eat a larger share of the paycheck. The number that matters is what’s left after the mortgage or rent, not the offer letter.

It is worth noticing how thin some of these metro markets are. Corpus Christi employs just 500 rad techs and Austin 1,520, against 5,470 in Dallas-Fort Worth. In a small market, a single hospital system can effectively set the local pay rate, and openings come up less often. In Dallas-Fort Worth or Houston, dozens of employers compete, which is why those metros tend to negotiate up faster even though Austin posts the higher median. Volume gives you alternatives, and alternatives are what raise an offer.

Take-home pay after taxes in Texas

Gross salary is not what you keep. The table below runs each percentile point through 2026 federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and Texas state tax, which is zero. It shows what actually lands in your account each year and each month.

At the median, a Texas rad tech grosses $78,630 and nets $63,702 a year, which works out to $5,309 a month. The effective tax rate at that level is 19.0%. Every state-tax cell reads $0, and that is the whole advantage of working this job in Texas.

Here is the cross-state comparison that makes the case. Take the Texas median net of $63,702 and put the identical gross salary in California. The California rad tech nets $60,362 after that state’s income tax. The Texas tech keeps $3,340 more every single year for doing the exact same work at the exact same pay. Over a ten-year stretch that gap compounds to more than $33,000 in extra take-home, before you factor in raises. That is real money California’s higher cost of living does not give back.

Watch how the effective rate climbs as pay rises. An entry tech at $48,550 pays an effective 15.5% and nets $41,048, or $3,421 a month. The median tech pays 19.0%. An experienced tech at $93,830 pays 20.7% and nets $74,395, while a senior tech at $102,630 pays 21.5% and keeps $80,586, or $6,716 a month. The federal system is progressive, so a bigger raise is taxed at a higher marginal rate, but the senior tech still takes home $39,538 more a year than the entry tech. More gross always means more net here. The state-tax zero is what keeps that climb steeper than it would be almost anywhere else.

One caveat worth saying plainly: net pay minus local housing is the number that actually matters. A bigger net check in a metro where rent is high can leave you with less spendable cash than a smaller check in a cheaper market. Run your own offer through the Texas paycheck calculator to see your exact monthly take-home, then subtract your real housing cost before you compare two jobs. When tax season comes, TurboTax handles the federal filing cleanly, and with no state return to file, Texas keeps it simple.

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How to earn more as a rad tech in Texas

The $54,080 gap between entry and senior pay is not luck. It tracks specific, repeatable moves. Here is how Texas techs climb the band:

• Add a second and third modality. A plain X-ray tech who cross-trains into CT, then MRI, becomes far harder to replace. Multi-modality techs cluster in the 75th to 90th percentile, the $93,830 to $102,630 range, because one person can cover more of the department.
• Stack ARRT advanced certifications. Credentials in mammography, interventional radiography, or computed tomography are the clearest signal to a hiring manager that you belong above the median. Self-paced coursework through Coursera can shore up the prerequisite knowledge before you sit the registry exam.
• Work nights, weekends, and call. Shift differentials and on-call premiums are added on top of base pay and can push a median tech well into the experienced band without changing your title.
• Move to Austin or Dallas-Fort Worth. The two highest-paying large metros pay $83,870 and $83,140 respectively, both above the state median. If you can relocate, that is an instant raise of several thousand dollars.
• Target large hospital systems over outpatient clinics. Trauma centers and academic medical centers carry higher pay scales and clearer ladders to charge-tech and lead roles than small imaging offices.
• Step into a lead or charge position. Once you have the modalities and the experience, supervisory roles move you toward the top of the range and add a path out of bedside imaging entirely.

Job outlook for radiologic technologists in Texas

Texas employs roughly 20,250 radiologic technologists, one of the deepest pools of these workers in the nation. A workforce that size in a fast-growing state means steady hiring across hospitals, outpatient imaging centers, and specialty clinics. The two big metros, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, alone account for 10,470 of those jobs, so most openings concentrate where the population is densest.

For techs, scale is bargaining power. A large, distributed employer base means you can change jobs without changing cities, and competing systems have to match each other on pay to fill hard shifts. To see what’s open near you and what employers are actually offering, browse current listings on ZipRecruiter and compare the postings against the metro medians above before you accept anything.

Related and higher-paying roles in Texas

If you are weighing where rad tech pay sits against nearby healthcare roles, both common step-up paths in Texas pay more. Use these as a map for where additional training could take you.

Sonography is the natural next step for an imaging tech, since the equipment, the patient workflow, and the clinical setting all overlap. The $13,950 jump in median pay can justify the extra schooling for many techs. Nursing pays the most of the three at $95,970, but it is a longer training road and a different scope of work, so treat that $17,340 gap as the reward for a full career change rather than a lateral move.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025 (SOC 29-2034); federal and FICA tax estimates for tax year 2026. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.