Compared with the local labor market
Child Protective Services Specialist III pay vs. Texas
Across all employers in Texas, the median wage for Child, Family, and School Social Workers — about 21,670 people — is $55,680. Department of Family and Protective Services pays a median base salary of $56,980 for this role, 2% above that figure — about the 54th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Department of Family and Protective Services sits in the local pay range
$37,230
$46,330
$55,680
$63,870
$73,670
Department of Family and Protective Services median · $56,980
The bar is the range of annual wages for Child, Family, and School Social Workers across every employer in Texas, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Department of Family and Protective Services’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Child, Family, and School Social Workers — about 392,550 people — is $59,550. Department of Family and Protective Services’s median base salary is 4% below that national figure, about the 44th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$42,280
$48,270
$59,550
$76,070
$95,530
Department of Family and Protective Services median · $56,980
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Texas range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Department of Family and Protective Services is $56,980, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.