What Helpers--Production Workers earn in Harris County, TX
According to the latest federal wage data for the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area, the median pay for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX is $37,290 a year, or $17.93 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare (and no state income tax), the paycheck shrinks to $32,091 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Harris County, TX.
The mean wage is $38,160, which is 2.3% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 8,120 people working in this occupation across the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Harris County, TX has roughly 4,838,303 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Helpers--Production Workers in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $28,990 a year ($13.94 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $48,080 or more ($23.12 an hour). That is a gap of $19,090 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $33,280 at the 25th percentile and $42,740 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.7 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX is $17.93. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $37,290, and the same salary is $3,108 a month before taxes or about $1,434 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $15.43 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Helpers--Production Workers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Helpers--Production Workers this way: "Help production workers by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include supplying or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Operate machinery used in the production process, or assist machine operators"; "Examine products to verify conformance to quality standards"; "Observe equipment operations so that malfunctions can be detected, and notify operators of any malfunctions"; "Lift raw materials, finished products, and packed items, manually or using hoists".
Job outlook for Helpers--Production Workers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 167,400 jobs in 2025 to 153,600 in 2035, a change of -8.2%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 20,900 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 12.5% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $39,070 for this occupation; the Harris County, TX median of $37,290 is 4.6% below it.
How pay in Harris County, TX compares
Compared with the Texas average
Harris County, TX pays above the state benchmark. The Texas employment-weighted average for Helpers--Production Workers is $36,881; the local median of $37,290 beats it by $409, or 1.1%. Within Texas, the highest median we track for this job is $37,890 in Dallas County, TX.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Helpers--Production Workers is $39,925 across the contiguous United States. At $37,290, Harris County, TX pays $2,635 less, which is 6.6% 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 Harris County, TX
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Harris County, TX, Helpers--Production Workers ranks number 525 by median pay, ahead of about 15% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $172,160 a year, which is $134,870 more than the median for Helpers--Production Workers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $37,290 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $5,199 a year, which leaves $32,091, or $2,674 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $14 goes to taxes and $86 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 13.9%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $21,540. 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 $2,346, an effective 6.3% 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 $2,312 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $541. FICA totals $2,853, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Texas
There is no state income tax on wages in Texas, which means Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX keep the full $32,091 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,865 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $155 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Harris County, TX
IRS Statistics of Income data for Harris County, TX show an average adjusted gross income of $93,479 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 16.1% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.8%, compared with the 6.3% 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 Harris County, TX
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Harris County, TX: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $32,091 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Harris County, TX is $1,261 a month, or $15,132 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,497 a month. For Helpers--Production Workers, a one-bedroom absorbs 47.1% of take-home pay and 40.6% 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 9.2% of gross pay for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris 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
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $22,199 a year, 69% of take-home pay. That leaves $9,892 a year, or $824 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 26.5% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Harris County, TX
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Harris 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 Harris County, TX, set beside the Texas and national medians.
Property taxes in Harris County, TX
Homeowners in Harris County, TX pay a median of $4,489 a year in real estate taxes, 6% above the Texas median of $4,232 and 44% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $276,600, the median tax bill is 1.62% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Helpers--Production Workers median of $37,290, a tax bill of that size would equal 12.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Harris County, TX
Renters in Harris County, TX pay a median gross rent of $1,401 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 $1,261 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 $276,600, 3% below the Texas median of $283,800. Median household income is $74,983, 4% below the Texas median of $78,476, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 20.2% of that income.
Commuting in Harris County, TX
Workers in Harris County, TX who travel to a workplace spend an average of 29.0 minutes each way, 9% above the Texas average of 26.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 12.9% of workers in Harris County, TX work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Helpers--Production Workers afford to live in Harris 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 $37,290 that ceiling is $932 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,261 is $329 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $24.25 an hour; the median for Helpers--Production Workers is $17.93, which is 26% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $15.43 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 18.9 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,497 a month means $749 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,150 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $16,042.
How fast you can save
At $824 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 13 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 26 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Helpers--Production Workers pay in Harris County, TX
What is the hourly wage for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX?
The median is $17.93 per hour, based on $37,290 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $13.94 at the 10th percentile to $23.12 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $37,290 becomes $32,091 a year. That is $2,674 a month, $1,234 every two weeks or $617 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX?
Total taxes are $5,199 a year, an effective rate of 13.9%: $2,346 federal income tax, $2,853 FICA and no Texas income tax.
Is pay for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX above the Texas average?
Yes. The local median of $37,290 is +1.1% versus the Texas average of $36,881, a difference of $409 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Helpers--Production Workers salary in Harris County, TX?
A one-bedroom costs $1,261 a month against take-home pay of $2,674, which is 47.2% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $932 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Helpers--Production Workers in Harris County, TX?
About $824 a month ($9,892 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $22,199 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Harris County, TX at the 30% guideline?
$24.25 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $15,132 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Helpers--Production Workers is $17.93.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, 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.