How Much Do Welders Make in Texas?
Welders in Texas earned a median of $53,340 a year ($25.64 an hour) in May 2025, according to BLS. Pay is highest in Odessa ($63,470) and Midland ($61,410), and the Houston area, with 15,850 welding jobs, has a median of $57,940. The top tenth of Texas welders earned $80,240 or more.
Texas welders earned a median of $53,340 a year, or $25.64 an hour, in May 2025. Half earned more and half earned less. That is almost exactly the national median of $53,750, but the Texas range is wider at the top: the best-paid tenth of Texas welders made $80,240 or more.
What you actually earn depends mostly on where you work. A welder in Odessa earned a median of $63,470. A welder in McAllen earned $39,710. Same job title, very different paycheck.
Most welders are paid by the hour, so that is the number to hold job offers against. The Texas hourly median was $25.64, next to $25.84 nationally. In Odessa it was $30.51, in Houston $27.86 and in Dallas-Fort Worth $24.82. If an offer comes in well under the hourly median for your metro, you have room to ask for more once you hold a certification.
Welder Pay in Texas, From Entry Level to Top Earners
BLS splits pay into bands. Here is how Texas compares with the whole country, May 2025.
| Pay band | Texas | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Bottom 10% earned less than | $38,380 | $39,240 |
| Bottom 25% earned less than | $45,750 | $46,790 |
| Median | $53,340 | $53,750 |
| Mean (average) | $56,940 | $56,760 |
| Top 25% earned more than | $64,770 | $63,010 |
| Top 10% earned more than | $80,240 | $77,530 |
Read the bottom rows as a rough guide to your first year or two out of school. The top rows show what experienced welders reach, and in Texas that top end sits above the national figure.
Texas also has more welders relative to its workforce than most states. Its location quotient for welders is 1.38, which means welding jobs make up a bigger share of Texas employment than they do nationally. BLS counted 52,000 welders, cutters, solderers and brazers in the state.
Which Texas Cities Pay Welders the Most
The table below shows median welder pay by metro area, highest to lowest, along with how many welders work there. All figures are from BLS, May 2025.
| Metro area | Median pay | Hourly median | Top 10% earn | Welders employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Odessa | $63,470 | $30.51 | $84,090 | 790 |
| Midland | $61,410 | $29.53 | $89,480 | 810 |
| Corpus Christi | $59,450 | $28.58 | $76,120 | 1,280 |
| Beaumont-Port Arthur | $59,190 | $28.46 | $83,680 | 1,980 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | $59,040 | $28.39 | $76,060 | 2,210 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | $57,940 | $27.86 | $81,940 | 15,850 |
| Amarillo | $55,460 | $26.66 | $74,190 | 620 |
| Longview | $52,300 | $25.14 | $72,380 | 1,270 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | $51,630 | $24.82 | $76,920 | 10,620 |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels | $48,220 | $23.18 | $73,800 | 2,510 |
| Lubbock | $46,760 | $22.48 | $70,740 | 500 |
| El Paso | $45,000 | $21.63 | $64,260 | 650 |
| Tyler | $43,100 | $20.72 | $68,250 | 550 |
| McAllen-Edinburg-Mission | $39,710 | $19.09 | $62,530 | 350 |
Three things stand out. The Permian Basin (Odessa and Midland) pays best, and Midland’s top tenth earned $89,480 or more, the highest of any Texas metro. The Gulf Coast refinery belt (Corpus Christi, Beaumont-Port Arthur and Houston) comes next. And the border metros, El Paso and McAllen, pay the least.
Houston and Dallas: Where the Welding Jobs Are
High pay in a small metro is only useful if you can get hired there. Odessa employs 790 welders and Midland 810. Houston alone employs 15,850, and Dallas-Fort Worth employs 10,620. Between them, those two metros hold roughly half of all the welding jobs in Texas.
Houston is the stronger of the two for pay. Its median of $57,940 sits well above the state figure, and its top tenth earned $81,940 or more. If you want both a large job market and above-average pay, Houston is the obvious choice. The Houston welding schools page lists every program in the area.
Dallas-Fort Worth pays a bit below the state median at $51,630, but its top tenth still earned $76,920 or more, and 10,620 jobs means more openings to start in. The Dallas welding schools page is the place to begin if you live in North Texas.
San Antonio has 2,510 welders and a median of $48,220, lower than either of the big two. See the San Antonio page for local training.
Welder Pay in Smaller Texas Metros
The table above skips a number of smaller metros. Here is where they land, May 2025 medians:
- Sherman-Denison: $55,020. Above the state median, and home to Grayson College in Denison, which offers structural and combination welder certificates plus a hybrid orbital welding program.
- College Station-Bryan: $52,800. Close to the state figure, with 330 welders.
- Wichita Falls: $49,010 and Victoria: $48,580. Small markets with 230 and 160 welders.
- Killeen-Temple: $48,460 and Waco: $46,380. Central Texas pays below the state median, though Killeen-Temple’s top tenth still earned $72,710 or more.
- Abilene: $48,160. Lower local pay, but TSTC trains welders here for jobs across the state.
- San Angelo: $46,440 and Laredo: $45,370. Both below the state median.
- Brownsville-Harlingen: $45,020. Low median, but a wide spread: the top tenth earned $76,710 or more.
- Texarkana: $41,920. Among the lowest in the state.
If you live in one of the lower-paying metros, the numbers make a case for training locally, where tuition is cheap, and then looking at jobs in Houston, Beaumont-Port Arthur or the Permian Basin once you have your certifications.
Welding Careers in Texas That Pay More
Welding is also a starting point for jobs that pay more once you have experience. Here is what related careers paid in Texas in May 2025.
| Career | Texas median pay | Hourly median |
|---|---|---|
| Welding supervisor | $70,140 | $33.72 |
| Welding instructor | $65,180 | $31.34 |
| Millwright | $62,630 | $30.11 |
| Welder | $53,340 | $25.64 |
| Ironworker | $52,240 | $25.12 |
| Robotic welding technician | $51,310 | $24.67 |
| Welding inspector | $46,210 | $22.22 |
Keep in mind that the supervisor and inspector rows cover every production supervisor and every inspector or tester in the state, not only people in welding. Ironworkers are unusually concentrated in Texas, with a location quotient of 1.57.
Two jobs further up the ladder need more than welding school. Welding engineers in Texas earned a median of $115,810, a path that usually runs through an engineering degree. Welding sales representatives earned $99,080.
Pipe welders and structural welders are counted with all welders by BLS, so they share the $53,340 state median. Read what each specialty involves on the pipe welder and structural welder career pages.
Where to Train Near the Better-Paying Metros
If you want to work on the Gulf Coast, Houston-area community colleges are cheap and close. San Jacinto College in Pasadena conferred 534 welding awards in 2024–25 and sits inside the Houston metro. Lee College in Baytown offers a welding inspection certificate that ends with a Certified Welding Inspector exam-prep course, a step toward inspection work.
For West Texas, Texas State Technical College in Abilene conferred 588 welding awards in 2024–25, with an advanced pipe certificate of about 16 months. It offers day and night options, in person or hybrid.
In East Texas, Panola College in Carthage lists AWS D1.1 structural and ASME Section IX pipe certifications, and it is close to the Longview metro, where 1,270 welders work.
Tuition at these colleges runs from $2,352 at Panola to $7,212 at TSTC for a full-time year in 2024–25. For the full breakdown, read the companion guide on welding school cost in Texas, or see every ranked program on the Texas welding schools page.
How to Move Into the Top Pay Band
The gap between a Texas welder at the median and one in the top tenth is large. A few choices you control push you toward the high end:
- Get certified on pipe. Combination and pipe certifications qualify you for plant and pipeline work in metros like Houston and Beaumont-Port Arthur, which both pay above the state median. See the welding certification guide for how AWS and ASME tests work.
- Follow the work. Odessa and Midland pay the most, but you may need to move or travel to get there.
- Add a second skill. Millwrights and supervisors out-earn production welders, and both roles reward welding experience.
For how Texas compares with every other state, see the national welder salary table. For a step-by-step path from first class to first job, read how to become a welder in Texas.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Starting Pay for a Welder in Texas?
The bottom tenth of Texas welders earned $38,380 or less in May 2025, and the bottom quarter earned $45,750 or less. Those figures are a fair guide to what a new welder can expect in the first year or two.
Which Texas City Pays Welders the Most?
Odessa had the highest median welder pay in Texas in May 2025 at $63,470, followed by Midland at $61,410 and Corpus Christi at $59,450.
Do Texas Welders Earn More Than the National Average?
About the same. The Texas median was $53,340 and the national median was $53,750 in May 2025. The Texas top tenth earned $80,240 or more, above the national $77,530.
How Many Welders Work in Texas?
BLS counted 52,000 welders, cutters, solderers and brazers in Texas in May 2025, with 15,850 in the Houston metro and 10,620 in Dallas-Fort Worth.
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