What Bartenders earn in Bastrop County, TX
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $23,670: the median annual pay for Bartenders in Bastrop County, TX. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $11.38 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $32,760, which is 38.4% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,130 people working in this occupation across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Bastrop County, TX has roughly 106,582 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Bartenders in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $16,590 a year ($7.98 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $64,150 or more ($30.84 an hour). That is a gap of $47,560 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $18,030 at the 25th percentile and $40,830 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 3.9 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: $11.38 an hour or $23,670 a year at the median for Bastrop County, TX. Before any deductions, that is $1,973 a month, $910 every two weeks and $455 each week. After taxes the same job pays $10.13 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Bartenders
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Bartenders this way: "Mix and serve drinks to patrons, directly or through waitstaff."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Collect money for drinks served"; "Check identification of customers to verify age requirements for purchase of alcohol"; "Balance cash receipts"; "Attempt to limit problems and liability related to customers' excessive drinking by taking steps such as persuading customers to stop drinking, or ordering taxis or other transportation for intoxicated patrons".
Job outlook for Bartenders
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 762,600 jobs in 2025 to 800,500 in 2035, a change of +5%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 121,200 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 15.9% of current employment each year.
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 $34,340 for this occupation; the Bastrop County, TX median of $23,670 is 31.1% below it.
How pay in Bastrop County, TX compares
Compared with the Texas average
A worker in this occupation in Bastrop County, TX earns $820 more than the Texas average of $22,850, a premium of 3.6%. Over a year that premium is worth $820 before tax and roughly $730 after tax. Within Texas, the highest median we track for this job is $24,170 in Dallas County, TX.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Bartenders is $34,134 across the contiguous United States. At $23,670, Bastrop County, TX pays $10,464 less, which is 30.6% 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 Bastrop County, TX
Among the 528 occupations with published wages in Bastrop County, TX, Bartenders ranks number 528 by median pay, ahead of about 0% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $176,990 a year, which is $153,320 more than the median for Bartenders.
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 Bartenders earning the Bastrop County, TX median of $23,670, they add up to $2,603. The result is $21,067 of take-home pay a year ($1,756 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $11 goes to taxes and $89 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 11.0%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $7,920. 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 10% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $792, an effective 3.3% of gross pay, well below the 10% 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 $1,468 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $343. FICA totals $1,811, 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 Bartenders in Bastrop 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 $1,184 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $99 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Bastrop County, TX
IRS Statistics of Income data for Bastrop County, TX show an average adjusted gross income of $72,569 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 11.4% across all filers. Filers in the $10,000 to under $25,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.7%, compared with the 3.3% 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 Bastrop County, TX
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Bastrop County, TX: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $21,067 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Bastrop County, TX, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,530 a month ($18,360 a year), and at $1,817 for two bedrooms. For Bartenders, a one-bedroom absorbs 87.2% of take-home pay and 77.6% 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 14.5% of gross pay for Bartenders in Bastrop 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
The basics cost $25,427 a year in Bastrop County, TX, but take-home pay for Bartenders is $21,067. That is a shortfall of $4,360 a year, or $363 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 430 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $10.13, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Local housing and commute data for Bastrop County, TX
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Bastrop 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 Bastrop County, TX, set beside the Texas and national medians.
Property taxes in Bastrop County, TX
Homeowners in Bastrop County, TX pay a median of $4,453 a year in real estate taxes, 5% above the Texas median of $4,232 and 43% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $314,800, the median tax bill is 1.41% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Bartenders median of $23,670, a tax bill of that size would equal 18.8% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Bastrop County, TX
Renters in Bastrop County, TX pay a median gross rent of $1,410 a month in the Census survey, in line with the Texas median of $1,403. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,530 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 $314,800, 11% above the Texas median of $283,800. Median household income is $86,226, 10% above the Texas median of $78,476, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 21.3% of that income.
Commuting in Bastrop County, TX
Workers in Bastrop County, TX who travel to a workplace spend an average of 35.4 minutes each way, 33% above the Texas average of 26.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.9 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 15.7% of workers in Bastrop County, TX work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Bartenders afford to live in Bastrop 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 $23,670 that ceiling is $592 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,530 is $938 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $29.42 an hour; the median for Bartenders is $11.38, which is 61% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $10.13 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 34.9 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,817 a month means $909 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,458 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $3,098, which turns the shortfall into a surplus.
How fast you can save
With no monthly margin after the four basics, saving requires a change on one side of the ledger: higher pay than the $23,670 median, lower housing costs than the $1,530 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about Bartenders pay in Bastrop County, TX
How much do Bartenders make per hour in Bastrop County, TX?
The median is $11.38 per hour, based on $23,670 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $7.98 at the 10th percentile to $30.84 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Bartenders take home after taxes in Bastrop County, TX?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $23,670 becomes $21,067 a year. That is $1,756 a month, $810 every two weeks or $405 a week.
How much tax do Bartenders pay in Bastrop County, TX?
Total taxes are $2,603 a year, an effective rate of 11.0%: $792 federal income tax, $1,811 FICA and no Texas income tax.
Do Bartenders earn more in Bastrop County, TX than elsewhere in Texas?
Yes. The local median of $23,670 is +3.6% versus the Texas average of $22,850, a difference of $820 a year.
Can Bartenders afford a one-bedroom apartment in Bastrop County, TX?
A one-bedroom costs $1,530 a month against take-home pay of $1,756, which is 87.1% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $592 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Bartenders in Bastrop County, TX?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $25,427 a year, which is $4,360 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $363.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Bastrop County, TX at the 30% guideline?
$29.42 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $18,360 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Bartenders is $11.38.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, 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.