5. Houston, Texas
Another Texas city with big hair and big wages. Full-time civilian workers can expect to make $25.14 in the Houston-Baytown-Huntsville area, and in manufacturing and construction jobs the rate is much higher, at $29.12/hour. It doesn’t hurt that the cost of living is 7.8 percent below the national average, with groceries especially cheap at 15 percent below. That means you can snag a dozen eggs for just $1.52, according to BankRate.com (the average price of eggs in May 2012 was $1.69, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).
