What Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop earn in Waller County, TX
The median pay for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in Waller County, TX is $26,730 per year, which works out to $12.85 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area, the labor market that Waller 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 $26,840, which is 0.4% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 8,990 people working in this occupation across the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Waller County, TX has roughly 61,552 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $16,080 a year ($7.73 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $36,200 or more ($17.40 an hour). That is a gap of $20,120 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $22,650 at the 25th percentile and $29,060 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.3 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: $12.85 an hour or $26,730 a year at the median for Waller County, TX. Before any deductions, that is $2,228 a month, $1,028 every two weeks and $514 each week. After taxes the same job pays $11.34 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop this way: "Welcome patrons, seat them at tables or in lounge, and help ensure quality of facilities and service."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Provide guests with menus"; "Greet guests and seat them at tables or in waiting areas"; "Receive and record patrons' dining reservations"; "Maintain contact with kitchen staff, management, serving staff, and customers to ensure that dining details are handled properly and customers' concerns are addressed".
Job outlook for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 444,200 jobs in 2025 to 459,500 in 2035, a change of +3.4%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 107,100 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 24.1% 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 $31,200 for this occupation; the Waller County, TX median of $26,730 is 14.3% below it.
How pay in Waller County, TX compares
Compared with the Texas average
Pay in Waller County, TX runs $480 below the Texas average of $27,210, a gap of 1.8%. 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 $28,890 in Dallas County, TX.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is $30,922 across the contiguous United States. At $26,730, Waller County, TX pays $4,192 less, which is 13.6% 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 Waller County, TX
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Waller County, TX, Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop ranks number 609 by median pay, ahead of about 1% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $172,160 a year, which is $145,430 more than the median for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop.
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 Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop earning the Waller County, TX median of $26,730, they add up to $3,143. The result is $23,587 of take-home pay a year ($1,966 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $12 goes to taxes and $88 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 11.8%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $10,980. 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 $1,098, an effective 4.1% 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 $1,657 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $388. FICA totals $2,045, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Texas
Texas does not tax wage income, so the state income tax line for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in Waller 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 $1,337 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $111 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Waller County, TX
IRS Statistics of Income data for Waller County, TX show an average adjusted gross income of $89,584 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 14.1% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.7%, compared with the 4.1% 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 Waller County, TX
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Waller County, TX: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $23,587 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Waller County, TX, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,261 a month ($15,132 a year), and at $1,497 for two bedrooms. For Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop, a one-bedroom absorbs 64.2% of take-home pay and 56.6% 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 12.9% of gross pay for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in Waller 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 $22,199 a year in Waller County, TX. Subtract that from $23,587 of take-home pay and $1,388 remains, which is $116 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 5.2% of gross pay, a thin cushion that one unexpected expense could erase.
Local housing and commute data for Waller County, TX
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Waller 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 Waller County, TX, set beside the Texas and national medians.
Property taxes in Waller County, TX
Homeowners in Waller County, TX pay a median of $4,046 a year in real estate taxes, 4% below the Texas median of $4,232 and 30% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $318,700, the median tax bill is 1.27% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop median of $26,730, a tax bill of that size would equal 15.1% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Waller County, TX
Renters in Waller County, TX pay a median gross rent of $1,169 a month in the Census survey, 17% 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 $1,261 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 $318,700, 12% above the Texas median of $283,800. Median household income is $80,397, 2% above the Texas median of $78,476, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 18.8% of that income.
Commuting in Waller County, TX
Workers in Waller County, TX who travel to a workplace spend an average of 32.2 minutes each way, 21% above the Texas average of 26.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.4 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 11.1% of workers in Waller County, TX work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop afford to live in Waller 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 $26,730 that ceiling is $668 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,261 is $593 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 Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is $12.85, which is 47% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $11.34 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 25.7 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 $7,538.
How fast you can save
At $116 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 87 months (7.3 years). Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 174 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop pay in Waller County, TX
How much do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop make per hour in Waller County, TX?
The median is $12.85 per hour, based on $26,730 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $7.73 at the 10th percentile to $17.40 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop take home after taxes in Waller County, TX?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $26,730 becomes $23,587 a year. That is $1,966 a month, $907 every two weeks or $454 a week.
How much tax do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop pay in Waller County, TX?
Total taxes are $3,143 a year, an effective rate of 11.8%: $1,098 federal income tax, $2,045 FICA and no Texas income tax.
Do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop earn more in Waller County, TX than elsewhere in Texas?
No. The local median of $26,730 is -1.8% versus the Texas average of $27,210, a difference of $480 a year.
Can Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop afford a one-bedroom apartment in Waller County, TX?
A one-bedroom costs $1,261 a month against take-home pay of $1,966, which is 64.2% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $668 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in Waller County, TX?
About $116 a month ($1,388 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 Waller 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 Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is $12.85.
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.