Cardiologist Salary in Texas 2026,
$410,150 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $410,150 a year, or $197.19 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 17.3% below the national median of $496,010, with no state income tax deducted. The band runs $97,140 at the 10th percentile to $703,430 at the 90th, and the 25th percentile of $142,860 is fellowship territory rather than practice income. The median is the only sensible reference point in a distribution shaped like this.

Because of who is counted there. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands publishes $187,550 against Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington's $403,340, and the reason is that Houston contains the largest medical complex in the world — a concentration of academic cardiology, general and advanced fellowship programmes and salaried institutional physicians without parallel anywhere. Fellows and academic faculty are counted in the same occupational estimate as private practice cardiologists. A metro whose cardiology workforce is disproportionately in training or on academic salary publishes a low median regardless of what its senior clinicians earn.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at $403,340, then San Antonio-New Braunfels $382,000 and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos $341,080, with Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands far behind at $187,550. Dallas-Fort Worth's lead reflects a large private and hospital-employed cardiology market with proportionally less academic weight than Houston carries.

Not at all. Texas levies no state personal income tax and no local income tax, so the whole of a $410,150 median or a $544,670 seventy-fifth percentile is subject only to federal tax. At this income that is a very large sum against the highest-taxing states — more than the 17.3% gap to the national median costs. The offsets are Texas property tax, among the higher effective rates in the country, and the state franchise tax where a practice is organised as an entity above its revenue threshold.

Composition, mostly. A location quotient of 1.31 means Texas employs cardiologists above the national rate, and a large part of that density is training and academic capacity concentrated in Houston and Dallas. Fellows on training salaries and faculty on academic scales sit in the same estimate as private interventional cardiologists. Payer mix contributes too — Texas has a high uninsured rate and large Medicaid-covered and border populations, which constrains practice revenue in some markets. The $544,670 seventy-fifth percentile is the better guide to established private practice here.

Because the OEWS estimate is a headcount-weighted measure of employment, not a measure of what senior clinical work commands. The Texas Medical Center's scale means Houston hosts a very large number of cardiology fellows, advanced fellows and academic faculty, all employed in Houston and all inside SOC 29-1212. Add the institutional and safety-net cardiology employment that a complex of that size supports, and the metro's median at $187,550 is being pulled down by the sheer number of people at the lower end of the distribution rather than pushed down by weak demand. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at $403,340 has a proportionally larger private and hospital-employed cardiology market and a smaller academic weight.

The band is bimodal and the metro rows are unusually treacherous. With $142,860 at the 25th percentile and $544,670 at the 75th, the median sits between a training population and a practising one rather than in the middle of either. The wage measure excludes partnership distributions, catheterisation laboratory productivity arrangements and call pay, all material in cardiology. And Houston's $187,550 should never be read as what a Houston cardiologist earns — it is a statement about the composition of employment in that metro.

Procedural subspecialty first — interventional cardiology and electrophysiology carry the highest value, and they are what the $544,670 seventy-fifth percentile and $703,430 ninetieth describe. Practice structure second: leaving academic or salaried institutional employment for private or hospital-employed clinical practice is most of the distance from Houston's $187,550 to Dallas-Fort Worth's $403,340. Market third, since payer mix varies sharply across Texas and the border and rural counties face the most constrained practice revenue. Partnership and facility involvement fourth, weighing the state franchise tax on any practice entity.