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.
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
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Related federal data
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.