Government salary transparency for Texas — how we built it

Job Title · City Detail

Criminal District Attorney Salary in Austin, Texas

In Austin, the State of Texas reports 63 public employees holding the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY classification. Average annual base pay is $209,041, with a median of $210,000 and a range from $175,000 to $210,000. The largest employer of this title in Austin is COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY.

Employees63
Average pay$209,041
Median pay$210,000
Top earner$210,000

How Austin compares for the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY role

Across all of Texas state government, the average base pay for the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY classification is $209,041, calculated from 63 employees in 1+ agencies statewide. In Austin specifically the average sits at $209,041, which runs about 0% below the statewide figure for this role — a difference of $0.00 per year between an average Austin incumbent and an average Texas incumbent in the same classification. That gap is consistent with what you would expect given the mix of employers active in Austin and the cost-of-living posture of the metro relative to other Texas cities.

Compared to all public-sector employees in Austin (regardless of title), the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY role pays about 70% more than the citywide average of $122,907. That places this title in the upper half of Austin's state workforce by pay, reflecting both the seniority that this classification typically carries and the agency mix that employs it locally. For an apples-to-apples comparison against other roles in Austin, see our city profile for Austin or compare against the same title in other Texas cities via the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY hub.

Within Austin, the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY classification appears at 1 different state employer: COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY. The single largest employer is COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY, which accounts for 63 of the 63 reported records in this combination. Where multiple agencies employ the same classification, pay variation is normal — agencies set individual pay within the state classification plan's salary band based on tenure, market conditions, and any agency-specific salary supplements that have been authorized by the Legislature or by the agency's governing board.

Top Criminal District Attorneys in Austin by pay

NameAgencyAnnual payHire date
Courtney Ponthier COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 November 1, 2013
Jarvis Parsons COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2013
Michael Nash COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 July 4, 2012
Kenda Culpepper COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 November 21, 2008
Mark Snider COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2009
Andria Bender COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 October 30, 2017
Heath Hemphill COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2009
Fred Weber COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2015
Michael Evans COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2017
John Mcdonough Iii COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2013
William Ramsay COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2013
Bennie Schiro COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2013
Richard Thompson COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2017
Shalyn Hamlin COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2013
Dwight Gallivan COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2021
Val Varley COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2001
Allison Palmer COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2013
Steven Reis COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 1993
Lucy Wilke COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2017
Luke Inman COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 April 7, 2008
Joel Deel COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2005
Robert Vititow COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 September 1, 2001
John Warren COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2017
Tonya Spaeth COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 September 1, 2013
Karren Price COMPTROLLER'S - JUDICIARY $210,000 January 1, 2021

Showing 25 of 63 records, sorted by annual pay (highest first).

Reading this number in context

The annual pay column on this page reflects what the State of Texas reports as the employee’s annualized base salary at the time of the most recent payroll snapshot. It does not include benefits, retirement contributions (such as TRS or ERS employer contributions), longevity pay, hazardous-duty pay, paid leave cash-outs, contract buyouts, or any supplements paid out of foundation, athletic, or grant funds — categories that can add materially to total compensation, especially in academic medical centers and senior university roles. Use the figures here as an apples-to-apples baseline for comparison; treat them as the starting point of a conversation, not the final word.

Two employees in Austin with the same CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY title can earn very different amounts for legitimate reasons. The State of Texas operates a position classification plan in which most titles map to a salary group with a defined minimum, midpoint, and maximum, and agencies are free to set individual pay anywhere within that band. Universities and elected-officials’ offices are exempt from the standard plan altogether and set pay independently. Tenure, prior agency service, market-pay adjustments approved under Texas Government Code Chapter 659, and acting-leadership stipends all contribute to within-title variation. For the full set of caveats, see our methodology.

If you want to compare what the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY role pays in other Texas cities, the CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY hub aggregates every reported incumbent statewide. To see what other classifications pay in Austin, the Austin city profile breaks down the local mix of employers and titles. For peer roles, the job-titles index is the master list.