Electrical Engineer Salary in Texas 2026,
$129,450 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $129,450 a year, or $62.24 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 7.3% above the national median of $120,630, with no state income tax deducted. The middle half falls between $95,130 and $164,730 and the full band runs $76,120 to $210,160. Paying above the national median and taking no income tax is a genuinely strong combination.

Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos at $145,360, clearly ahead of Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands $131,070, Midland $127,420, Corpus Christi $124,800 and Beaumont-Port Arthur $124,570. Austin's semiconductor and technology cluster is the reason, and the roughly twenty-one thousand dollar gap to Beaumont-Port Arthur reflects two genuinely different electrical engineering economies within the state.

For some work. The Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors licenses professional engineers, and the licence is required to offer engineering services to the public, seal drawings and take responsible charge — which covers most power, utility and building electrical work. Semiconductor, product and much industrial engineering proceeds under the industrial exemption without it, which is why a great many Austin electrical engineers are unlicensed.

On the wage figure yes — $145,360 against a state median of $129,450 — but the calculation is not only the wage. Austin housing costs and property tax bills have risen sharply and are the highest of the Texas metros in this table, and the work is concentrated in semiconductor and technology employment that carries its own cyclicality. Houston at $131,070 offers power, process and energy engineering with lower housing costs, which for many engineers nets out better.

Four things, and they are unusually diverse for one state: semiconductor fabrication and design around Austin; grid, generation and transmission work driven by the state's independent electricity market and its load growth; data centre power infrastructure, which has expanded rapidly; and petrochemical and process electrical work along the Gulf Coast and in the Permian Basin. That breadth is why Texas holds more than one in ten American electrical engineers.

It means the same job title covers very different careers, and the choice between them is made early. Austin semiconductor and technology work rewards device physics, design and verification skills, pays $145,360 at the metro median, generally requires no licence, and carries the cyclicality of the technology sector. Gulf Coast and Permian power, process and controls engineering rewards code knowledge, protection and coordination studies and plant experience, frequently does require the professional engineer licence, and tracks the energy cycle instead. Moving between them mid-career is genuinely difficult, because the skills and the credential requirements diverge. Texas is one of the few states where an electrical engineer must actively choose.

It reports wages and salaries and excludes the equity that forms a real part of semiconductor and technology compensation in the Austin market — so the Austin figure understates total compensation more than the others do. The occupation code covers power, electronics, controls and semiconductor engineering in one row at different rates. And the state figure takes no account of the property tax burden, which at Austin housing values is substantial.

Sector first: semiconductor and technology work in Austin above general industrial and process engineering, worth about twenty-one thousand dollars at the metro level. The professional engineer licence second, but only on the power, utility and building side where responsible charge applies. Specialisation third — protection and coordination, power systems studies, and semiconductor design are the scarce skills. Principal responsibility, engineering management and consulting fourth, which is what the $164,730 seventy-fifth percentile and $210,160 ninetieth describe.