A Texas family living on one paycheck needs $72,925 a year to cover the basics for a household with one child, according to a new SmartAsset report — a figure that lands just $6,800 below the state's median household income and ranks Texas as the 9th most affordable state in the country for single-income families.
The report, using MIT's Living Wage Calculator to estimate annual living wages across all 50 states, is detailed in a piece by CultureMap Houston writer Amber Heckler. SmartAsset analyzed both three-person households with two working parents and one child, and three-person households with a single working parent, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study factored in costs for food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes, and other necessities. This year's Texas single-income threshold actually dropped $1,809 compared with 2025, the report notes.
For comparison, a Texas household with one child and two full-time working parents needs a combined annual income of $85,030 to reach financial stability — meaning a single-income household with a stay-at-home parent can get by on roughly $12,000 less, largely because it avoids childcare costs altogether. Nationally, Texas ranks No. 42 among states by the minimum income needed to support a single-income family, per the same CultureMap Houston analysis.
Where Texas Lands Among the Cheapest States
Texas isn't the cheapest state for single-income households, but it's close. The report's ranking of the 10 states with the lowest single-income family thresholds includes Arkansas at $68,869, Mississippi at $70,054, Kentucky at $70,179, West Virginia at $70,283, North Dakota at $71,219, Oklahoma at $71,365, Louisiana at $71,406, Missouri at $72,862, Texas at $72,925, and Tennessee at $72,946. That puts Texas squarely in the middle of a cluster of mostly Southern and Midwestern states where a single paycheck stretches furthest.
In Houston specifically, childcare alone costs $10,265, and the report notes that raising a child in the city can cost more than $22,000 overall. A Houston family with two working parents and two children needs a combined income of $204,672 to reach financial stability, underscoring how quickly costs multiply once childcare and additional dependents enter the picture.
The Tradeoffs of Going Down to One Income
Choosing to have one parent stay home comes with real savings and real costs. A single-income family with small children can potentially save significantly on childcare compared with a household where both parents work, but according to the report, a parent staying home full time does not gain any specific tax benefits beyond what dual-income households already receive. Single-income families may still claim the Child Tax Credit under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, per SmartAsset — worth up to $2,200 per qualifying child in 2026, with as much as $1,700 of that structured as a refundable credit.
What the tax credit doesn't offset is the lost salary and retirement contributions, Social Security earnings history, and employer health benefits that come with dropping to one income, the report notes. Those losses can compound over a career even as the household saves on daycare in the short term.
How the Numbers Compare Statewide and Nationally
The single-income threshold tracks closely with broader statewide income data. Texas's median household income reached $79,721 in the 2024 American Community Survey, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, up 2.2% from $78,006 the year before but still roughly 2.3% below the national median of $81,604. That puts SmartAsset's $72,925 single-income threshold well within reach of a typical Texas household's earnings.
The gap looks very different at the bottom of the wage scale. Texas's minimum wage has remained frozen at $7.25 an hour since July 2009, tied to the federal floor, which generates just $15,080 a year for a full-time worker — leaving that worker $57,845 short of the single-income threshold, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Under Chapter 62 of the Texas Labor Code and the 2023 Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, local municipalities are barred from setting higher private-sector minimum wages of their own.
Separately, the MIT Living Wage Calculator itself pegs the hourly living wage for a single Texas adult with one child at $35.77, or $74,401 annualized, while a single adult with no children needs $21.77 an hour, or $45,281 a year — though those baselines cover only essential survival costs, without accounting for savings, retirement, or emergency funds.
What It Takes to Feel Truly Comfortable
Basic survival and genuine financial comfort are two different benchmarks. A separate SmartAsset cost-of-living study, applying the 50/30/20 budgeting rule, found that a single Texas adult needs $90,563 pre-tax to live comfortably — a figure that ranks Texas 34th nationally and is down 0.2% from $90,771 in 2025, as reported by InnovationMap. For a Texas family of four with two working parents, that comfort threshold jumps to $203,424, with $101,712 going toward necessities, $61,027 toward discretionary spending, and $40,685 toward savings and debt repayment.
Texas's tax structure plays a role in stretching paychecks further than in some other states. Texas is one of nine states without a personal state income tax, relying instead on sales tax collections and higher local property tax rates to fund public services, Hoodline has reported. That structure lets single earners keep more of their pre-tax pay, even as property tax burdens weigh on housing costs for homeowners and renters alike.
Nationally, the gap between Texas and the most expensive states is stark. SmartAsset's stay-at-home parent study found Hawaii, at $106,496, and California, at $101,213, are the only two states where a single working parent must earn more than $100,000 a year to support a spouse and one child. Massachusetts showed the widest gap between single- and dual-income requirements of any state, where a two-working-parent household with one child needs 31.5% more income — $124,842 — than a single-earner household, largely due to extreme local childcare costs.
