{"id":436967,"date":"2026-09-15T20:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436967\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T20:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:36:10","slug":"how-much-a-single-income-texas-family-needs-to-make-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436967\/","title":{"rendered":"How much a single-income Texas family needs to make in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

With childrearing costs<\/a> in the Lone Star State adding up to tens of thousands of dollars per year, many two-parent Texas families are navigating a difficult decision: should both parents work or should one parent stay home to raise the child?<\/p>\n

For Texas families that choose the latter, the working parent needs to make nearly $73,000 per year to support their child and the stay-at-home parent, a new income analysis has revealed.<\/p>\n

The newly released SmartAsset report<\/a> used MIT’s Living Wage Calculator to estimate the annual living wages needed across all 50 states for a three-person household with two working adults and one child, and a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. Costs included food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes, and “other necessities.”<\/p>\n

A Texas household with one working parent needs to make $72,925 to support their stay-at-home counterpart and their child, the study found. That’s $1,809 less<\/a> than what was needed in 2025.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the combined income needed for a household with one child and both parents working full-time is $85,030. <\/p>\n

Texas ranked No. 42 in SmartAsset’s ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working parent, one stay-at-home parent, and one child. That also situates Texas as the 9th most affordable state for single-income families. But there are risks associated with only having one breadwinner in the family.<\/p>\n

“A single income family with small children potentially saves in child care costs over a household with two working parents,” the report’s author wrote. “The main disadvantages are the lost salary and retirement contributions, Social Security earnings history and employer health benefits.”<\/p>\n

There aren’t any specific tax benefits to having a parent stay at home to raise their child full time, but SmartAsset says single-income families can claim a tax credit under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. <\/p>\n

“[S]ingle-income families may claim<\/a> the Child Tax Credit \u2014 up to $2,200 per qualifying child for 2026 ($1,700 refundable) \u2014 on the same terms as any other family,” the report said.<\/p>\n

SmartAsset’s latest report only looks at costs on a statewide basis, but the cost to raise a child will also vary greatly depending on the city you live in. Raising a child in Austin might pose a challenge for many families, where the cost for childcare alone adds up to $12,091 and overall costs<\/a> can reach $25,000. <\/p>\n

For households with two children, there might be additional strains on what a family might consider a “comfortable living<\/a>.” A March 2026 SmartAsset study determined an Austin family with two working parents need to make a combined income of $229,050 to have a financially stable life while raising two children.<\/p>\n

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income needed for single-income families are:<\/p>\n

Arkansas ($68,869)Mississippi ($70,054)Kentucky ($70,179)West Virginia ($70,283)North Dakota ($71,219)Oklahoma ($71,365)Louisiana ($71,406)Missouri ($72,862)Texas ($72,925)Tennessee ($72,946)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With childrearing costs in the Lone Star State adding up to tens of thousands of dollars per year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,541,38186,542,38187,27],"class_list":["post-436967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-family","tag-income","tag-reports","tag-smartasset","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}