EKG Technician Salary in Texas 2026,
$53,000 Median | BLS Data by City

The BLS category that contains EKG technicians has a Texas median of $53,000 a year, $25.48 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a very wide range from $36,650 to $103,120. Basic EKG and telemetry work sits toward the $41,840 twenty-fifth percentile; registered echocardiography and cath lab work sits at the $82,660 seventy-fifth and above.

Waco at $79,360, followed by Beaumont-Port Arthur at $64,830, Corpus Christi at $63,220, Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos at $62,600 and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands at $60,650. Every published metro sits above the statewide median of $53,000, which indicates the metro samples are weighted toward hospital-based cardiovascular technologists rather than the basic EKG roles that fill out the rest of the state.

No. Texas issues no licence, registration or state examination for EKG technicians or cardiovascular technologists, and the title is not protected. Employers screen on certification instead: the National Healthcareer Association's Certified EKG Technician for entry work, and Cardiovascular Credentialing International's registry credentials in echocardiography and invasive cardiology for the higher-paid half of the occupation.

No — Texas has no personal or local income tax, so the full salary is subject only to federal tax. At the $53,000 median that saves a low four-figure sum a year against a graduated-rate state; at the $82,660 seventy-fifth percentile it saves considerably more, which is one reason the credentialed end of this occupation does well in Texas.

By moving out of rhythm monitoring and into imaging or the cath lab. A Cardiovascular Credentialing International registry credential in adult echocardiography or invasive cardiology is the recognised route, and Texas hospitals — particularly the large Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth systems — hire and train into it. That is the difference between the $41,840 twenty-fifth percentile and the $82,660 seventy-fifth, and it is a training pathway rather than a state application, because Texas licenses none of it.

It is the largest on this page and it needs stating first: SOC 29-2031 is a close but not exact match for EKG technician. The code pools basic EKG and telemetry technicians with echocardiographers and cardiac catheterisation technologists, whose training and pay are entirely different. A Texas technician doing twelve-lead acquisition and telemetry monitoring should read the $36,650 to $41,840 region of this page, not the $53,000 median, and certainly not the $82,660 seventy-fifth percentile.

Because the metro rows and the statewide row are drawing on different mixes. Published metro estimates for this occupation in Texas come from hospital cardiovascular departments — echo labs, stress labs, cath labs — where the registered technologists work. The statewide figure additionally captures the large volume of basic EKG and telemetry roles spread across smaller hospitals, clinics and centralised monitoring operations across Texas. Waco at $79,360 is not a better market than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands at $60,650 in any simple sense; it is a differently composed sample.

Call and credential, in that order. Cath lab technologists in Texas hospitals take call for emergency catheterisation, and call pay plus call-back premiums are a substantial share of annual earnings at the top of this band — untaxed by the state. Below that, the registry credentials themselves usually attach to a defined pay grade in Texas hospital systems, so obtaining one produces an immediate step change rather than a gradual rise. Basic EKG work has neither mechanism, which is why the bottom of the Texas band is as flat as it is.