Master Plumber Salary in Texas 2026,
$59,840 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Texas figure for the wage row is $59,840 a year, or $28.77 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 6.2% below the national median of $63,800. But SOC 47-2152 covers plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters at every licence tier, so it is not a master plumber figure. A Texas master plumber realistically sits around the $74,100 seventy-fifth percentile and above, toward the $81,890 ninetieth.

Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos at $62,810, then Beaumont-Port Arthur $62,220, Odessa $61,870, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands $61,300 and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington $61,250. The whole top five spans under $1,600, and the presence of Beaumont-Port Arthur and Odessa among them reflects industrial pipefitting on the Gulf Coast petrochemical complex and in the Permian Basin.

The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners runs a graded ladder: tradesman plumber first, then journeyman, then master. Each step requires documented hours of work under a licensed plumber plus a board examination. On top of the master licence sits the Responsible Master Plumber designation, which is what allows a master plumber to operate a plumbing business, pull permits in the business's name and take responsibility for the work of others. Texas's ladder is more formal than many states', and the percentile band on this page maps onto it closely.

It is the credential that turns a licensed tradesperson into someone who can contract. A Responsible Master Plumber holds the master licence and is registered with the board as the person accountable for a plumbing business's work — permits are pulled under that designation and the holder answers for compliance. In income terms it is the most consequential step in the ladder, because business ownership income is not a wage and therefore sits outside the $81,890 ninetieth percentile that this wage row reports.

For most comparisons, yes. The gross shortfall against the national median is $3,960, and Texas has no state income tax and no state disability or paid family leave deduction, so a plumber here keeps the whole of their state-level income. Against a moderate-tax state that is worth roughly a four-figure sum annually at these wage levels, and considerably more against California or New York — which typically leaves a Texas plumber ahead on take-home despite the lower gross.

Because it turns a wage band into something interpretable. In states without formal tiers, the spread between the 10th and 90th percentiles in a trade reflects an indistinct mix of experience, employer and region. In Texas the tradesman, journeyman and master licences are real legal statuses with examinations and documented hours between them, so the $38,270 to $81,890 band has structure: each step up the ladder corresponds to a step up the percentiles. It also means the median is a poor guide to any particular licence holder.

Two things. The category bundles pipefitters and steamfitters with plumbers, and in Texas that is not a minor inclusion — the Gulf Coast petrochemical complex and Permian Basin employ large numbers of industrial pipefitters whose work and pay cycle differs from building plumbing. And the wage measure excludes self-employment: Responsible Master Plumbers running their own businesses are the top of this trade commercially, and their income does not appear in an employer wage survey at all.

Licence tier first, since it is a legal gate rather than a preference and it maps almost directly onto the percentile ladder. Then sector: industrial pipefitting on Gulf Coast and Permian projects pays comparably to metropolitan commercial plumbing and carries substantial overtime and per diem on turnarounds, which the metro figures for Beaumont-Port Arthur and Odessa reflect. Then service versus new construction, with service and emergency work carrying premium rates. And then the move to contracting under a Responsible Master Plumber designation, which changes the income question entirely.