Credit Counselors in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,358
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$9,782
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,498
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$52,140
Kept after tax
$42,358
Worth in national money
$45,498
State rank
23
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Wisconsin pays credit counselors around $52,140 at the midpoint, 23 of 46 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Credit counselors ranks 303 among 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $52,140 you keep $42,358 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $45,498 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $57,550, since top earners drag the number up.
- For credit counselors the Wisconsin median is $52,140, ranking 23 of 46 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 303 of 491 in Wisconsin places credit counselors in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in Wisconsin is $42,358 after the full tax stack, from $52,140. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $45,498 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $57,550 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Credit Counselors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,140 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,310 |
| This salary | $52,140 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Wisconsin | $42,358 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,074 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$143 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $50,003 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$172 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $52,140 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $44,950 and the ninetieth is $77,310 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Wisconsin's $42,358, worked from $52,140. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 303 of 491.
- Two cautions on $45,498, the adjusted value of that $52,140 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Wisconsin. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 303 of 491 locally.
- The Wisconsin median of $52,140 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $44,950 to $77,310. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Wisconsin take-home of $42,358, on $52,140 for work ranking 303 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 303 of 491 in the state.
- This $45,498 adjusted figure, worked from $52,140, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 303 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 303 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $57,550 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $44,950 at the bottom tenth to $77,310 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Wisconsin is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $45,498 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Wisconsin's own levy, $42,358 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Wisconsin is $57,550. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($44,950 to $77,310) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wisconsin rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Wisconsin's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $45,498 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $42,358 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.