Brownsville-Harlingen, TX Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 86.0) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX moved from $35,050 in May 2024 to $36,490 in May 2025 (+4.1%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Brownsville-Harlingen, TX sits +1.0 pp ahead of that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Based on wage level, year-over-year wage growth, and regional-price-parity-adjusted purchasing power from BLS and BEA sources, not job availability, industry mix, or day-to-day livability.
Waiters and Waitresses shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
Waiters and Waitresses publishes $21,010 here versus $35,230 nationally (-40.4%; 2,430metro-area jobs). Next is Home Health and Personal Care Aides at $23,500 locally versus $35,800 nationally (-34.4%).
- Waiters and Waitresses$21,010 in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX sits 40.4% below the national Waiters and Waitresses median of $35,230 (2,430 published local jobs).
- Home Health and Personal Care Aides$23,500 in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX sits 34.4% below the national Home Health and Personal Care Aides median of $35,800 (21,990 published local jobs).
- General and Operations Managers$75,350 in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX sits 28.8% below the national General and Operations Managers median of $105,770 (3,440 published local jobs).
- Fast Food and Counter Workers$22,500 in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX sits 27.9% below the national Fast Food and Counter Workers median of $31,200 (6,570 published local jobs).
Waiters and Waitresses and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Brownsville-Harlingen, TX; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 15180 · Brownsville-Harlingen, TX $46K mean
MEAN-TRACE · RPP-QUIET · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-TRACE #518/528
- RPP-QUIET 86.0
- OCC-MID 311 occs
- TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $331K
- EMP-MIX Detectives a…
- TREND-INLINE +1.0 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH McAllen-Edinburg…
- BOOK-FULL 310 rows · May 2025
Read with McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (+$16 on published-row mean) · Salary vs. cost of living
Instrument codes from this MSA’s OEWS published-row mean, BEA RPP, occupation book, employment lead, All Occupations pay change, and nearest peer, not a moving recommendation.
Published-row mean neighbourhood around Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
Where Brownsville-Harlingen, TX already employs the upper wage tier
Detectives and Criminal Investigators and Managers, All Other lead published employment inside Brownsville-Harlingen, TX's top-pay sample, order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Detectives and Criminal Investigators 880 jobs · $109,300
- 2. Managers, All Other 480 jobs · $123,750
- 3. Lawyers 390 jobs · $103,100
- 4. Financial Managers 320 jobs · $129,820
- 5. Software Developers 310 jobs · $106,990
- 6. Nurse Practitioners 300 jobs · $124,530
- 7. Physical Therapists 280 jobs · $103,810
- 8. Speech-Language Pathologists 270 jobs · $100,940
- 9. Pharmacists 240 jobs · $131,280
- 10. Mechanical Engineers 230 jobs · $102,350
- 11. Physician Assistants 200 jobs · $127,370
- 12. Computer and Information Systems Managers 180 jobs · $137,880
- 13. Physicians, All Other 150 jobs · $330,890
- 14. Marketing Managers 140 jobs · $113,220
- 15. Human Resources Managers 130 jobs · $110,230
- 16. Education Administrators, Postsecondary 120 jobs · $101,870
- 17. Engineers, All Other 100 jobs · $129,990
- 18. Industrial Production Managers 100 jobs · $110,830
Occupations Tracked
311
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$46,218
employment-weighted, 310 complete rows
Top Salary
$330,890
Physicians, All Other
Cost of Living
86.0
14% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX, by employment
Same top-pay sample as the salary ranking, sorted by published local jobs so the title sequence follows the OEWS mix.
| # | Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Detectives and Criminal Investigators | $109,300 |
| 2 | Managers, All Other | $123,750 |
| 3 | Lawyers | $103,100 |
| 4 | Financial Managers | $129,820 |
| 5 | Software Developers | $106,990 |
| 6 | Nurse Practitioners | $124,530 |
| 7 | Physical Therapists | $103,810 |
| 8 | Speech-Language Pathologists | $100,940 |
| 9 | Pharmacists | $131,280 |
| 10 | Mechanical Engineers | $102,350 |
| 11 | Physician Assistants | $127,370 |
| 12 | Computer and Information Systems Managers | $137,880 |
| 13 | Physicians, All Other | $330,890 |
| 14 | Marketing Managers | $113,220 |
| 15 | Human Resources Managers | $110,230 |
| 16 | Education Administrators, Postsecondary | $101,870 |
| 17 | Engineers, All Other | $129,990 |
| 18 | Industrial Production Managers | $110,830 |
| 19 | Family Medicine Physicians | $215,480 |
| 20 | Dentists, General | $134,550 |
| 21 | Chief Executives | $178,860 |
| 22 | Pediatricians, General | $168,640 |
| 23 | Architectural and Engineering Managers | $157,160 |
| 24 | Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels | $103,800 |
| 25 | Veterinarians | $120,940 |
Lowest Paying Jobs in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Bartenders | $18,340 |
| Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers | $19,290 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $21,010 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $21,860 |
| Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers | $22,070 |
| Childcare Workers | $22,290 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $22,500 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $22,920 |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | $23,500 |
| Dishwashers | $23,670 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in TX
Other metropolitan or nonmetropolitan OEWS areas assigned to the same state. Cross-state pay and employment peers live in Nationwide similar metros below.
Nationwide metros with similar published-row mean pay or employment scale
Two OEWS peer sets outside TX. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($46,218 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
Similar employment scale
Nearest headcount peers (floor 100,000 summed published jobs), distinct from the mean-wage column.
Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on BLS OEWS employment-weighted published-row mean wage and summed occupation employment. Employment peers exclude metros already listed in the mean-wage column so the two link sets stay distinct. Mean wage here is not a worker-level median.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the lower price level do to Brownsville-Harlingen, TX wage reading? ▼
What is the highest paying job in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX? ▼
What jobs pay the least in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX? ▼
Which federal tables feed Brownsville-Harlingen, TX's wage and price figures? ▼
Related federal data
What to do with this data
How to use Brownsville-Harlingen, TX wage figures in a real decision
- Physicians, All Other leads published medians in Brownsville-Harlingen, TX at $330,890/year; open the occupation for percentile bands and state rows. Physicians, All Other
- The employment-weighted published-row mean of $46,218 adjusts to about $53,757 on a national-price basis at BEA RPP 86.0. Salary vs cost of living
- Compare this metropolitan statistical area against the statewide occupation table for TX before treating one geography as the other. State wage page
BLS OEWS estimates reflect the May 2025 reference period; small occupation-area cells can be suppressed, and figures are not employer offers.
Source data and WageDex calculations are identified in context on this page. Occupation rows use BLS OEWS May 2025. The metro benchmark is WageDex's employment-weighted mean of published occupation means; where BEA RPP is available, the price-level figure divides that benchmark by the published area parity. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.