Roughneck Salary in Texas 2026,
$45,950 Median | BLS Data by City

The BLS row covering this work is Roustabouts, Oil and Gas, and it publishes a Texas median of $45,950 a year, or $22.09 an hour, per OEWS May 2025 — 2.2% below the national median of $46,960. The band runs from $35,840 at the 10th percentile to $60,470 at the 90th. The row includes general lease and production labour as well as drilling crew positions, so a rig floor hand should expect to sit above the median rather than at it.

No. Texas licenses no oilfield positions and there is no state credential for rig work. What employers require is their own safety training — a recognised safety orientation card, hydrogen sulphide awareness, fall protection and rig-specific competencies — plus medical and drug screening, with federal occupational safety rules governing the work. A commercial driver's licence helps for many positions.

On this row, Tyler leads at $55,000, then Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington $48,030, Victoria $47,650, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands $47,260 and Midland $47,180. The ordering reflects the mix of work in each area — production, service and drilling employment are paid differently — rather than a simple map of where the drilling is. Base wage is also only part of oilfield pay, and hitch, overtime and per diem arrangements vary by employer.

It depends on tolerance for the cycle. Texas holds around 54% of national employment on this row, so the work exists at scale and the entry requirements are low — no licence, no degree, employer safety training and a screening. Wages are cyclical, hitches are long, the work is physically hard and hazardous, and headcount swings with commodity prices. For someone who can handle that, the absence of a state income tax and the availability of overtime and per diem make the real earnings better than the $45,950 median suggests.

Because Texas is the market rather than a premium within it. When more than half of a national occupation sits in one state, that state's median largely determines the national figure, and the small states above it are usually places where a handful of high-cost operations pull the number up. Texas also has the full range of oilfield work — from low-paid general lease labour to skilled drilling crew positions — while some smaller states have a narrower, higher-skilled mix.

It means the occupation is six times as concentrated in Texas as in the country as a whole relative to total employment, and combined with Texas's share of national employment on this row — around 54% — it means this is effectively a Texas occupation with satellite operations elsewhere. The practical consequences are worth spelling out. Wage-setting for roustabouts nationally is driven by Texas conditions, not the reverse. The cycle that matters is the Permian and Eagle Ford activity cycle. And mobility within the occupation is mostly mobility within Texas: a worker moving from East Texas to the Permian is changing basins, employers and pay structures without leaving the state or needing any new credential.

Because OEWS measures wages, and oilfield compensation is a package. A rotational hitch schedule generates large amounts of overtime; per diem covers or partly covers living costs on the road; bonuses and retention payments appear when activity is high and vanish when it is not; and travel arrangements vary between operators and service companies. None of that structure is visible in a $22.09 hourly median. The corollary is also true and less pleasant: in a slow year the same base rate with fewer hours, no per diem and no bonus produces a much smaller annual figure, and layoffs arrive quickly. Anyone evaluating this work should think in annual terms across a full cycle rather than in hourly terms at a moment.

Upward through the rig hierarchy or sideways into services, and both are how the better earners in this occupation escape the bottom of the band. On the drilling side the progression runs roughhand to floorhand to derrickhand to driller, with pay rising sharply at each step and the drilling positions sitting well outside this SOC row entirely. On the services side, experience on a lease leads into wireline, coiled tubing, pressure pumping, well servicing and equipment operation, most of which pay better than general roustabout work and several of which require a commercial driver's licence. The common factor is that nothing here is credential-gated by the state — advancement comes from time on the job, reliability, and the willingness to work the hitch.