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

A registered nurse in Texas earns a median of $95,970 a year ($46.14 an hour), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is within a whisker of the national RN median of $97,550, but the figure that matters more for your wallet is what you keep. Texas has no state income tax, so a nurse here takes home more of that salary than a nurse earning the same number in California or New York. Here is the full breakdown: what you earn at each stage of your career, which Texas cities pay the most, what the paycheck looks like after tax, and the concrete ways to push your number higher.

How Texas RN pay compares to the national median

At $95,970, the typical Texas registered nurse earns about 1.6% less than the national median of $97,550, per the BLS OEWS data for registered nurses. On paper that looks like a small discount for working in Texas. In practice it is the opposite, and the reason is tax and cost of living.

The national median lumps together high-paying, high-cost states like California and Massachusetts with lower-cost ones. When you compare take-home rather than gross, Texas moves up the table. A nurse earning the Texas median keeps roughly $75,900 after federal tax and FICA, because there is no state income tax to pay. A nurse earning a numerically higher salary in a state with a 5% to 10% income tax can easily end up with less money in the bank. Texas also runs below the national average on housing in most of its metros outside the priciest Austin neighborhoods, which stretches that take-home further.

So the honest read is this: Texas RN pay is squarely at the national midpoint on gross, and above it on what you actually keep. For a career with this much geographic flexibility, that combination is hard to beat.

Registered nurse salary in Texas by experience

RN pay in Texas climbs sharply across a career. The gap between a new graduate and a senior, specialized nurse is more than $60,000 a year. These are the BLS wage percentiles for Texas, which map cleanly onto career stages:

A few things stand out. New-grad pay in Texas, around $67,000, is strong for an entry point that usually requires an associate degree and a license rather than years of postgraduate study. The jump from the 25th to the 75th percentile, roughly $79,000 to $105,000, is the stretch most nurses move through in their first decade as they gain experience, pick up certifications, and move into higher-acuity units. The leap to the 90th percentile, nearly $128,000, is where specialization and leadership pay off: nurse anesthetists, informatics nurses, and charge or manager roles sit in this band.

Worth noting: these figures are base wages. They do not include shift differentials for nights and weekends, on-call pay, or overtime, all of which are common in nursing and can add several thousand dollars a year on top.

What affects a registered nurse’s pay in Texas

Before the city and experience tables, it helps to know which factors actually move an RN’s salary in Texas, because they explain the wide spread you will see below:

• Experience and tenure. The single biggest factor. As the percentile table shows, moving from entry level to senior nearly doubles pay.
• Specialty and unit acuity. Critical care, emergency, operating room, and labor and delivery nurses earn above general medical-surgical floors. Specialized roles like nurse anesthetists sit far higher still.
• Work setting. Nationally, the highest-paying employers of RNs are not bedside hospital roles at all. Federal government nursing pays a national median around $121,000, and college and university health systems around $124,600, both well above the typical hospital. Texas RNs in government, academic, or specialized outpatient settings tend to out-earn those in nursing-care facilities or physician offices.
• Shift and overtime. Night, weekend, and on-call differentials, plus overtime, are standard in nursing and can add several thousand dollars a year on top of base.
• Metro. Where in Texas you work, covered in the next section, swings pay by 10% or more.

Registered nurse salary in Texas by city

Where you work inside Texas changes your pay meaningfully. The large metros pay a premium driven by their major hospital systems and the competition among them for staff. These are the highest-employment Texas metro areas for registered nurses and their median pay (BLS metropolitan data, 2025):

Dallas-Fort Worth leads the state, with Houston close behind. Both metros host large, competing hospital networks that bid for experienced nurses, which keeps wages elevated. Austin sits just above the state median and pairs that with the fastest job growth in Texas, though its higher cost of living eats into the advantage. San Antonio and El Paso pay below the state median in absolute terms, but their lower living costs can leave a nurse there with comparable or better real spending power than a higher number in a pricier metro.

One more lever worth knowing: travel and per-diem nursing. Within Texas, travel assignments frequently post weekly rates that annualize well above the staff median, particularly when a hospital system is short-staffed. For a nurse willing to move between assignments, that can be the fastest route to the upper percentiles without changing specialty.

How Texas compares to nearby and similar states

Texas RN pay makes the most sense alongside its neighbors and peer states (BLS state medians, 2025):

Within its region, Texas is the clear pay leader. It beats every neighboring state (Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas) on gross RN pay, and it does so with no state income tax, while those states all tax income. The only states that clearly out-pay Texas, like California, New York, and Oregon, come with much higher costs of living and steep income taxes. For a nurse weighing the south-central United States, Texas offers the strongest combination of gross pay and take-home in the region.

Cost of living and what the salary is really worth

A salary only means something against what it costs to live. Texas runs below the national average on cost of living in most of its metros, with housing the biggest driver of that advantage outside the priciest parts of Austin. Combine below-average living costs with no state income tax, and the Texas RN median of $95,970 stretches further than the same number in a coastal state. A nurse comparing a $110,000 offer in a high-tax, high-rent metro against $96,000 in a Texas suburb may find the Texas package leaves more money after rent and taxes. The lesson for nurses evaluating offers across states: compare take-home after tax and housing, not the gross salary on the job posting.

This is where Texas separates itself from states that look better on a salary chart. On the median RN salary of $95,970, here is the estimated annual take-home for a single filer. It covers federal income tax and FICA, with zero state income tax:

That is about $6,325 a month in the bank. Compare it to California, where a nurse earning the same $95,970 would lose roughly $4,000 to state income tax alone, landing closer to $72,000 take-home. The Texas nurse keeps that difference every single year. Over a 30-year career, the no-income-tax advantage compounds into a six-figure gap, before you even account for the lower cost of housing in most of Texas.

Your own number will vary with filing status, retirement contributions, and health premiums. Run your exact salary through our Texas paycheck calculator to see your real monthly take-home. If you file a straightforward W-2 return, many nurses use tax software like TurboTax to handle the federal-only filing quickly, since there is no state return to file in Texas.

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How Texas nurses are actually paid: hourly, differentials, and overtime

The annual median is a useful benchmark, but most Texas hospital nurses are paid hourly, and the base rate is only part of the story. Understanding the full structure helps you compare offers properly:

• Base hourly rate. The $46.14 median is the starting point. A 12-hour, three-shifts-a-week schedule built on that rate produces the annual figure.
• Shift differentials. Nights typically add a few dollars an hour, and weekends often add more. A nurse working mostly nights and weekends can lift effective pay well above the base.
• Overtime. Hours beyond the scheduled week are usually paid at time-and-a-half. In short-staffed units, overtime is frequent and is a major reason some nurses clear the 75th and 90th percentile figures.
• On-call and charge pay. Carrying a pager or running a shift as charge nurse adds further premiums.
• Per-diem and travel. Per-diem nurses trade benefits for a higher hourly rate, and travel assignments within Texas can pay weekly rates that annualize well above staff pay.

When you compare two Texas nursing offers, weigh the full effective hourly rate including differentials and expected overtime, not just the advertised base.

The nursing career ladder in Texas, and what each step pays

One reason nursing is such a durable career is the clear, salary-backed ladder above the staff RN role. Each step below is a real BLS-measured Texas median:

The jumps are substantial and worth planning around. Moving from RN to nurse practitioner in Texas adds roughly $36,000 to the median and requires a master’s degree. The nurse anesthetist path is the highest-paid nursing role in the state by a wide margin, with a Texas median near $245,000, though it demands doctoral-level training. For a nurse mapping a long-term earning trajectory, these figures show the biggest gains come from advancing the credential, not just accumulating years at the staff level.

How to earn more as a registered nurse in Texas

The median is a floor you can build on, not a ceiling. The most reliable ways Texas RNs move into the 75th and 90th percentile bands shown above:

• Move into a high-acuity specialty. ICU, emergency, operating room, and labor and delivery roles consistently pay above general medical-surgical nursing. These units also open the door to certifications that carry their own pay bumps.
• Get certified. Credentials like CCRN for critical care, CEN for emergency, or OCN for oncology signal verified expertise and are frequently tied to differential pay. Focused exam prep is available through nursing bodies and platforms like Coursera.
• Advance your degree. An RN-to-BSN, then an MSN, is the structural path to nurse practitioner and nurse anesthetist roles. Nurse practitioners in Texas earn far above staff RNs, often in the $120,000 to $170,000 range, which is the single biggest jump available to you.
• Choose the top-paying metros, or go travel. Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston pay a premium, and Texas travel contracts can pay well above staff rates for the same license.
• Negotiate the whole package. Night and weekend differentials, sign-on bonuses, on-call pay, and tuition reimbursement are often negotiable and compound year over year.

Job outlook for registered nurses in Texas

Texas employs roughly 271,000 registered nurses, one of the largest nursing workforces in the country, second only to California. That scale is driven by a fast-growing, aging population and the steady expansion of hospital systems across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. For nurses, it means broad and durable demand, with openings spread across every metro, specialty, and care setting in the state.

The BLS projects registered nursing to remain one of the larger sources of new healthcare jobs nationally over the coming decade, as an aging population needs more care and a wave of experienced nurses reaches retirement. Texas, with its population trajectory and continued in-migration, is positioned to absorb more of that growth than most states. The practical takeaway is leverage. In a market this large and this short of experienced nurses, a nurse who specializes, earns certifications, or is willing to relocate within Texas has real room to negotiate pay, schedule, and sign-on terms. Few careers combine this level of job security with a path to six-figure pay on an associate or bachelor’s degree.

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