Architect Salary in Texas 2026,
$94,490 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $94,490 a year, or $45.43 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 4.8% below the national median of $99,280, with no state income tax taken from it. The middle half falls between $76,730 and $121,670 and the full band runs $60,730 to $142,130. On a take-home basis Texas compares better than the nominal gap suggests.

Waco at $102,540, then Midland $99,990, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands $97,590, Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos $96,600 and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington $93,840. Under nine thousand dollars separates the table, and the two smaller markets leading the four big ones is a strong signal that firm type and licensure rather than city size determine architectural pay in this state.

Through the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners. The route is an accredited professional degree in architecture, documented experience through the Architectural Experience Programme, and passing the Architect Registration Examination divisions. The licence is what permits use of the title, sealing drawings and taking responsible charge for a project — the divide between architectural designer and architect.

On the take-home arithmetic, yes: a median within five per cent of the national figure with no state or local income tax, in metropolitan areas whose housing costs remain below comparable coastal markets. The caution is the ceiling — $142,130 at the 90th percentile — and the location quotient of 0.81, which means Texas employs architects below the national rate despite its construction volume. Property taxes are the significant household offset.

Because architectural fees are set against project value and firm structure rather than local wage levels, and the same national and regional firms operate across all the Texas markets. A licensed architect in Waco doing institutional or healthcare work commands similar terms to one in Dallas doing commercial work. The variation that matters — under nine thousand dollars across metros against an eighty-thousand-dollar band — sits in licensure, firm type and seniority instead.

It changes legal standing rather than skill. An unlicensed architectural designer can do sophisticated design work, but cannot use the title architect, seal construction documents, or take responsible charge for a project — all of which the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners reserves to licensees. That divide is the most plausible explanation for a band running from $60,730 to $142,130 in a state whose metro table spans under nine thousand dollars: the licence is what a firm is actually paying for at the upper end, because it is what allows the firm to sign and deliver work. For anyone in this profession in Texas, completing the experience programme and the examination divisions is the highest-return action available.

It reports wages and salaries, so principal and firm-owner income is under-represented — a meaningful omission in a profession with many small practices. The occupation code excludes landscape and naval architects. With about 7,820 architects at a location quotient of 0.81, Texas employs the profession below the national rate, so the sample is smaller than the state's construction volume would suggest. And it takes no account of the state's high property tax burden on the household side.

Licensure first and by a wide margin, since it is the gate to responsible charge and sealed documents. Firm type and sector second: healthcare, institutional, data centre and large commercial practice above residential and small commercial. Project leadership and associate or principal standing third, which is what the $121,670 seventy-fifth percentile and $142,130 ninetieth describe. Firm ownership fourth, subject to the franchise tax on entities above the revenue threshold. Geography contributes under nine thousand dollars and can largely be set aside.