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

A surgical technologist in Texas earns a median of $65,220 a year, or about $31.35 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the field lands between $39,950 at the 10th percentile and $92,580 at the 90th. Texas pays slightly above the national median, and because the state takes no income tax, more of that paycheck stays with you.

How Texas pay compares to the national median

A surgical technologist in Texas earns a median of $65,220 a year. The national median for the same role is $64,650, so Texas runs $570 ahead. That’s a small edge on the gross number, but the gap widens once taxes enter the picture. Texas has no state income tax, so a surgical tech here keeps more of every dollar than a colleague earning the identical salary in a state that taxes wages.

The state mean sits a touch higher than the median, at $66,640. When the mean tops the median, it usually means a cluster of higher-paid roles, often in large-metro hospital systems and specialty surgical centers, pulling the average up. The full range tells the real story: 10 percent of Texas surgical techs earn $39,950 or less, while the top 10 percent clear $92,580. That’s a spread of more than $52,000 between the floor and the ceiling, driven mostly by experience, certification, metro, and the type of facility you work in.

Texas also employs a lot of surgical technologists. The state reports 10,160 jobs in the occupation, one of the largest workforces in the country for this role. A deep job market matters because it gives you bargaining power. When hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and trauma units all compete for the same certified techs, pay tends to drift up and signing incentives appear.

It’s worth seeing the comparison in plain numbers. A Texas surgical tech at the median earns $570 more per year than the national median surgical tech, and then keeps a larger share of it because there’s no state income tax line on the paycheck. Two techs with identical $65,220 salaries, one in Texas and one in a state that taxes wages, will not bring home the same amount. We quantify that exact gap in the take-home section below. For now, the headline is simple: Texas pays a hair above average on gross and meaningfully above average on net.

Surgical technologist pay in Texas by experience

Experience is the single biggest lever on a surgical tech’s pay in Texas. A new graduate scrubbing in for the first time and a senior tech who runs the cardiac or neuro service are separated by roughly $52,000 a year. The percentile bands below map onto a typical career arc.

Entry pay of $39,950 is what a freshly certified tech often sees in a smaller facility or a lower-cost metro. The jump from the 10th to the 25th percentile, from $39,950 to $50,100, usually happens fast, inside the first two to three years, as you prove you can move through cases cleanly and handle more complex specialties.

The climb from the median of $65,220 to the experienced 75th-percentile figure of $80,790 is where certification and specialization pay off. Techs who can staff cardiovascular, orthopedic, or robotic cases are worth more because the hospital can’t run those rooms without them. Reaching the senior 90th percentile of $92,580 typically means years of specialty experience, a lead or first-assist role, or heavy call and overtime at a Level I trauma center. The hourly equivalents above are derived from the annual figures at a standard 2,080-hour work year, so a tech logging significant overtime can earn well past the listed rate.

It helps to read the bands as gaps rather than single points. The step from entry ($39,950) to the median ($65,220) is worth $25,270 a year, and most techs cross it in their first five to seven years. The next step, from the median to experienced ($80,790), adds another $15,570 and tends to require a deliberate specialty focus rather than just time served. The final stretch to senior ($92,580) adds $11,790 more and is the hardest to reach, because it usually depends on taking on call, lead duties, or first-assist responsibilities that not every tech wants. Knowing the size of each step lets you judge whether a raise offer is keeping pace with the market or lagging it.

One nuance the percentile table doesn’t show: the same experience level pays differently by metro, which is covered next. A mid-career tech at the statewide median of $65,220 would sit below the median in Dallas-Fort Worth and well above it in San Antonio. So when you benchmark your own pay, anchor to your metro’s median first, then layer your experience on top of that.

Surgical technologist pay by Texas metro

Where you work inside Texas changes your pay more than almost anything else. The largest metros don’t pay the same, and the difference between the top and bottom metro on this list is over $33,000 at the median. This is the part of the picture a national overview can’t give you.

Dallas-Fort Worth leads the state at a median of $79,990, nearly $15,000 above the statewide median of $65,220, and it also employs the most surgical techs at 2,790. The Metroplex has a dense network of large hospital systems and specialty surgical centers competing for staff, which lifts pay. Austin follows at $73,810, helped by a fast-growing population and a tight healthcare labor market.

Houston, the state’s medical heavyweight, posts a median of $71,050 across 2,660 jobs. That’s still well above the statewide figure, and the sheer volume of cases at the Texas Medical Center and surrounding systems keeps demand steady. El Paso comes in at $62,980, just under the state median.

San Antonio is the outlier at $46,820, more than $18,000 below the statewide median despite employing 1,390 techs. A lower regional cost structure and a different facility mix explain part of it, but the practical takeaway is blunt: the same job title can pay over $33,000 more in Dallas-Fort Worth than in San Antonio. If you’re mobile early in your career, metro choice can outweigh years of experience.

Look at the employment numbers alongside the pay and a pattern emerges. The two highest-paying large metros, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, also hold the most jobs, at 2,790 and 2,660 respectively. Together they account for more than half of all surgical tech employment captured in these five metros. That concentration is good news if you want options, because a dense market means more facilities bidding for your skills and more room to move between employers without relocating.

Austin is the interesting case. It pays the second-highest median at $73,810 but holds only 700 of these jobs, the smallest count after El Paso’s 250. That combination, high pay and a thin headcount, usually signals tight supply: not enough certified techs to meet demand, which pushes wages up. For a tech willing to move to Austin, that imbalance can translate into strong offers. El Paso, at $62,980, sits just $2,240 under the statewide median and serves a smaller market on the western edge of the state.

The bottom line on geography: before you accept or counter an offer anywhere in Texas, pull your metro’s median from this table and compare it to the statewide $65,220. A San Antonio offer at $55,000 looks weak against the state median but is actually well above the local norm, while the same number in Dallas-Fort Worth would be a low offer. Local context changes the read entirely.

Take-home pay after tax in Texas

Gross salary is the headline. Take-home is what actually lands in your account. Texas charges no state income tax, so a surgical tech here only loses money to federal income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare). The table below breaks down take-home at four career points, using a single-filer standard deduction.

At the median salary of $65,220, a Texas surgical tech keeps $54,268 after tax, which works out to $4,522 a month. The effective tax rate at that level is 16.8 percent. The state-tax column is $0 at every stage because Texas doesn’t tax wage income, and that zero is exactly where the no-tax advantage shows up.

Here’s the cross-state comparison that matters most. Take the Texas median net of $54,268 and put it next to California, where the same $65,220 gross gets taxed by the state. A surgical tech earning that salary nets $52,034 in California. That’s a gap of $2,234 a year that stays in a Texas tech’s pocket, just from where the job is located. Over a full career, that difference compounds into real money.

The pattern holds at every income level. At the entry figure of $39,950, a Texas tech nets $34,138 a year, $2,845 a month, at an effective rate of 14.5 percent. At the experienced 75th percentile of $80,790, net rises to $65,222 a year, or $5,435 a month, with the effective rate climbing to 19.3 percent as more income falls into higher federal brackets. At the senior 90th percentile of $92,580, take-home is $73,516 a year, $6,126 a month, at a 20.6 percent effective rate. Notice that the effective rate rises with income, from 14.5 percent at entry to 20.6 percent at senior, because federal tax is progressive while FICA and the Texas state-tax line of $0 stay flat.

One caveat worth keeping front of mind: net pay minus local housing is the number that actually decides your standard of living. A higher net in a metro with steep rent can buy less than a lower net somewhere cheaper. A senior tech netting $6,126 a month in Dallas faces very different rent than one in El Paso, so the take-home figures here are the start of the math, not the end of it. Run your own numbers through the Texas paycheck calculator before you compare offers, and if you want help projecting your full-year tax picture, TurboTax can model your withholding and deductions in a few minutes.

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How to earn more as a surgical technologist in Texas

The percentile spread above shows there’s real room to move up. The techs clearing $80,790 and beyond got there through specific, repeatable moves, not luck. Here’s how to push your pay toward the top of the Texas range.

• Get and keep your CST credential. The Certified Surgical Technologist certification is the baseline most Texas hospitals expect, and it’s often the line between an entry offer near $39,950 and a mid-career one closer to the $65,220 median.
• Specialize in high-acuity service lines. Cardiovascular, neurosurgery, orthopedic, and robotic-assisted cases pay a premium because hospitals can’t run those rooms without skilled techs. Specialty experience is the most direct route from the median toward the 75th percentile of $80,790.
• Target Dallas-Fort Worth or Austin. With medians of $79,990 and $73,810, these metros pay tens of thousands more than San Antonio’s $46,820. Relocating is the single fastest pay raise available in this field.
• Train toward Surgical First Assistant. Moving into a first-assist role expands what you’re licensed to do in the OR and lands you in the upper percentiles. Online coursework through platforms like Coursera can help you build the prerequisite knowledge while you keep working.
• Work where the call pay is. Level I trauma centers and busy surgical hospitals pay shift differentials, weekend rates, and call pay that can push a $65,220 base toward the $92,580 senior figure through overtime alone.
• Renegotiate at the two-year mark. Once you can staff multiple specialties cleanly, you have bargaining power. A deep Texas job market of 10,160 positions means you can credibly shop your skills.

Job outlook for surgical technologists in Texas

Texas employs 10,160 surgical technologists, one of the deepest workforces for the role in the country. That scale reflects a large, growing population and an expanding network of hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers across the major metros. Surgical volume tracks population, and Texas keeps adding people, so demand for techs who can scrub in reliably stays firm.

The practical signal for your pay is competition for talent. With Dallas-Fort Worth (2,790 jobs), Houston (2,660), and San Antonio (1,390) all staffing large surgical programs, employers compete for the same certified techs, which supports wages and incentives. If you’re looking to see what’s open and what facilities are paying right now, job boards like ZipRecruiter list Texas surgical tech roles with posted pay ranges you can compare against the figures here.

Related and higher-paying roles in Texas

If you’re weighing your next move, it helps to see exactly how a surgical tech’s pay stacks up against neighboring roles in the same state. Compared to the Texas surgical tech median of $65,220:

A registered nurse in Texas earns $30,750 more than a surgical technologist, which is why many techs eventually bridge into nursing. That path takes additional schooling and licensure, but the math is clear. A medical assistant, by contrast, earns $25,700 less than a surgical tech here, so moving in that direction would mean a pay cut. For a tech who already enjoys the OR, the higher-impact moves are specializing or training toward first assist rather than switching fields entirely.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 (occupation 29-2055); ThePayGuide 2026 take-home estimates using 2026 federal brackets and FICA. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.