RESOURCES

BETTER TEXAS Budgets

The Texas Family Budgets offer a "no-frills" estimate of what it takes for families of different sizes to make ends meet while achieving a safe and healthy life in Texas' metropolitan areas.

The findings presented here are intended to:

  • Raise public awareness of the difficulties faced by families with linited income.
  • Provide a realistic benchmark for planning and evaluation.
  • Support advocacy for policy and budgetary changes needed to help Texas families move from just getting by to getting ahead.

Build a Better Texas Family Budget

  • STEP

  • The Texas Family Budgets estimates what it takes for families to make ends meet in each of Texas’ 26 Metro Areas.

  • Please Choose Your Metro Area

  • STEP

  • In today’s health care market, having insurance is necessary for most families to receive preventative care and ease medical debt should a crisis occur or chronic problem arise.

  • Please Select Who Pays The Health Insurance Premium

  • STEP

  • Whether a household includes one or two adults, our family budgets assume all adults are working full-time, year-round to help make ends meet.

  • Please Select How Many Adults

With all adults in a household working, our family budgets assume children will be either in daycare or in school with after school care.

  • Family Size
  • 1. Child Families
  • 2. Child Families
     
     
  • 3. Child Families
     
     
  • Day Care or School
  • Preschooler In Day Care
  • Preschooler In Day Care +
    School-Age Child With After
    School Care
  • Infant And Preschooler In
    Day Care + School-Age Child
    With After School Care

  • STEP

  • In terms of economic mobility, or “getting ahead”, household savings play an important role in enabling children to rise out of poverty and have better economic success than their parents. As a whole, families who save are more financially stable, and better prepared for retirement and disruptions to income.

  • Please Select Only If The Family Is Saving

What does a working adult, child family in need to get by?

  • Combined Hourly Wage For 2 Working Adults

  • Necessary Annual Income

  • Percent of jobs that don’t pay enough for this family to reach the necessary annual income

  • How much bigger is their necessary annual income than poverty?

Where Does The Money Go?

  • Basic Expenses

    $

  • Housing

  • Food

  • Child Care

  • Medical

  •      Insurance

  •      Out-of-pocket

  • Transportation

  • Other Necessities

  • Total

Mouse over for details

  • Savings

    $

  • Emergencies/Rainy Day

  • Retirement

  • College

  • Total

  • Federal Taxes

    $

  • Payroll Tax

  • Income Tax

  • Earned Income Credit

  • Child Tax Credit

  • Child and Dependent

  • Care Credit

  • Total

  • Family Bottom Line for the Month

  • Total Monthly Income Needed To Cover Expenses

  • All values rounded to the nearest whole number.

Do the jobs in this metro area pay enough?

This family needs...

$/HR

PER WORKER

's Jobs Pay...

$/HR

MEDIAN HOURLY WAGE

What About The Top 5 Jobs In ?

% of
Workforce

Job Type

Median
Hourly Rate

Enough?

What Are We Fighting For?

Approximately of working adult, child families in don’t make enough to meet the basic expenses part of the budget, much less the additional savings options. That’s why we need public policies that provide all of us with quality, affordable health care, strong schools and colleges, good jobs, and improved child wellbeing. Learn more about our policy issues.

Additional Resources

Getting By In Texas Film

Take Our Pledge

Share Your Story

Sarah and Matt, Alexis and Richard, Alyssa and Anthony, Shamekia and James, and Delores tell the true story of what it really takes their families to survive in Texas. Click here to hear their stories.

In 2013, we will take the Better Texas Family Budgets data and our documentary film and hit the road—THE ROAD TO A BETTER TEXAS—sharing these families’ stories with many more Texans. Click here to request a speaker to share our family budgets work and/or a screening of the documentary in your area.

For more information or questions about the data, email Frances Deviney or call 512.320.0222 ext 106.

For media inquiries, email Brian Stephens or call 512.320.0222 ext 112.

©2012 Center For Public Policy Priorities

The 27 metropolitan areas selected for the Better Texas Family Budgets are the 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and two Metropolitan Divisions defined for Texas by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. We do not include rural areas at this time due to the limitations of some of our data sources, but hope to add them in our next revision.
See full methodology for more details.

This wage calculation illustrates the hourly wage needed to pay for basic needs, savings (if selected), and taxes. We also assume households receive no subsidies or benefits (other than federal tax credits), such as housing assistance, Food Stamps, subsidized child care, employer-provided health insurance, Medicaid, or CHIP. We assume each adult works 2000 hours per year.
See full methodology for more details.

This wage calculation illustrates the annual income necessary to pay for basic needs, savings (if selected), and taxes. We also assume households receive no subsidies or benefits (other than federal tax credits), such as housing assistance, Food Stamps, subsidized child care, employer-provided health insurance, Medicaid, or CHIP. We assume each adult works 2000 hours per year.
See full methodology for more details.

This calculation is based on the hourly wage needed by this family to cover expenses compared to the median hourly wages in that metro area for 23 job categories as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
See full methodology for more details.

To provide context to the family’s necessary annual income, we compare it to the 2011 federal poverty threshold for that family size. For example, a number of 2.5 means that this family’s estimated necessary annual income is two and a half times higher than the federal poverty level for that size family.
Poverty thresholds by family size:

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