What Construction Laborers earn in Bandera County, TX
The median pay for Construction Laborers in Bandera County, TX is $39,390 per year, which works out to $18.94 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan area, the labor market that Bandera County, TX belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $41,880, which is 6.3% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 8,400 people working in this occupation across the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Bandera County, TX has roughly 22,021 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Construction Laborers in the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $34,130 a year ($16.41 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $51,190 or more ($24.61 an hour). That is a gap of $17,060 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $36,640 at the 25th percentile and $45,500 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.5 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $18.94 an hour or $39,390 a year at the median for Bandera County, TX. Before any deductions, that is $3,283 a month, $1,515 every two weeks and $758 each week. After taxes the same job pays $16.24 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Construction Laborers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Construction Laborers this way: "Perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers, small mechanical hoists, surveying and measuring equipment, and a variety of other equipment and instruments. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris, and other waste materials. May assist other craft workers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Clean or prepare construction sites to eliminate possible hazards"; "Read plans, instructions, or specifications to determine work activities"; "Signal equipment operators to facilitate alignment, movement, or adjustment of machinery, equipment, or materials"; "Dig ditches or trenches, backfill excavations, or compact and level earth to grade specifications, using picks, shovels, pneumatic tampers, or rakes".
Job outlook for Construction Laborers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 1,489,300 jobs in 2025 to 1,598,600 in 2035, a change of +7.3%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 120,000 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.1% of current employment each year. About 26.9% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $47,120 for this occupation; the Bandera County, TX median of $39,390 is 16.4% below it.
How pay in Bandera County, TX compares
Compared with the Texas average
Pay in Bandera County, TX runs $2,093 below the Texas average of $41,483, a gap of 5.0%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Texas would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Texas, the highest median we track for this job is $44,000 in Travis County, TX.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Construction Laborers is $49,249 across the contiguous United States. At $39,390, Bandera County, TX pays $9,859 less, which is 20.0% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Bandera County, TX
Among the 549 occupations with published wages in Bandera County, TX, Construction Laborers ranks number 431 by median pay, ahead of about 22% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Software Developers at $128,430 a year, which is $89,040 more than the median for Construction Laborers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Construction Laborers earning the Bandera County, TX median of $39,390, they add up to $5,612. The result is $33,778 of take-home pay a year ($2,815 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $14 goes to taxes and $86 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 14.3%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $23,640. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $2,598, an effective 6.6% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,442 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $571. FICA totals $3,013, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Texas
Texas does not tax wage income, so the state income tax line for Construction Laborers in Bandera County, TX is $0. That alone leaves more in the paycheck than the same salary would in a state with an income tax. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,970 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $164 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Bandera County, TX
IRS Statistics of Income data for Bandera County, TX show an average adjusted gross income of $82,464 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 13.1% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.3%, compared with the 6.6% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Bandera County, TX
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Bandera County, TX: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $33,778 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Bandera County, TX, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,196 a month ($14,352 a year), and at $1,441 for two bedrooms. For Construction Laborers, a one-bedroom absorbs 42.5% of take-home pay and 36.4% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 8.7% of gross pay for Construction Laborers in Bandera County, TX. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Texas residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,578 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $719, for $2,297 in total. Gasoline in Texas averages $2.88 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,334.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $21,419 a year in Bandera County, TX. Subtract that from $33,778 of take-home pay and $12,359 remains, which is $1,030 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 31.4% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Bandera County, TX
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Bandera County, TX: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Bandera County, TX, set beside the Texas and national medians.
Property taxes in Bandera County, TX
Homeowners in Bandera County, TX pay a median of $2,438 a year in real estate taxes, 42% below the Texas median of $4,232 and 22% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $278,400, the median tax bill is 0.88% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Construction Laborers median of $39,390, a tax bill of that size would equal 6.2% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Bandera County, TX
Renters in Bandera County, TX pay a median gross rent of $1,149 a month in the Census survey, 18% below the Texas median of $1,403. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,196 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $278,400, 2% below the Texas median of $283,800. Median household income is $75,813, 3% below the Texas median of $78,476, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 18.9% of that income.
Commuting in Bandera County, TX
Workers in Bandera County, TX who travel to a workplace spend an average of 41.0 minutes each way, 54% above the Texas average of 26.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 6.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 9.5% of workers in Bandera County, TX work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Construction Laborers afford to live in Bandera County, TX?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $39,390 that ceiling is $985 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,196 is $211 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $23.00 an hour; the median for Construction Laborers is $18.94, which is 18% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $16.24 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 17.0 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,441 a month means $721 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $5,706 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $18,065.
How fast you can save
At $1,030 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 10 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 20 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Construction Laborers pay in Bandera County, TX
How much do Construction Laborers make per hour in Bandera County, TX?
The median is $18.94 per hour, based on $39,390 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $16.41 at the 10th percentile to $24.61 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Construction Laborers take home after taxes in Bandera County, TX?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $39,390 becomes $33,778 a year. That is $2,815 a month, $1,299 every two weeks or $650 a week.
How much tax do Construction Laborers pay in Bandera County, TX?
Total taxes are $5,612 a year, an effective rate of 14.3%: $2,598 federal income tax, $3,013 FICA and no Texas income tax.
Do Construction Laborers earn more in Bandera County, TX than elsewhere in Texas?
No. The local median of $39,390 is -5.0% versus the Texas average of $41,483, a difference of $2,093 a year.
Can Construction Laborers afford a one-bedroom apartment in Bandera County, TX?
A one-bedroom costs $1,196 a month against take-home pay of $2,815, which is 42.5% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $985 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Construction Laborers in Bandera County, TX?
About $1,030 a month ($12,359 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $21,419 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Bandera County, TX at the 30% guideline?
$23.00 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $14,352 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Construction Laborers is $18.94.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Texas rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.