Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$67,150
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$15,750
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,018
Alaska costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alaska — 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
$82,900
Kept after tax
$67,150
Worth in national money
$66,018
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays this job a middle wage of $82,900, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 28.87% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 133 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- No great distortion either way. Alaska costs about what the country costs, so from $82,900, take-home of $67,150 is worth roughly $66,018 in national money. The average lands at $79,910, below the middle of the range.
- Alaska's median for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors is $82,900, about 28.87% above the national figure and 2 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 133 of 430 in Alaska places educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors 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.
- Price parity in Alaska is near the national base, so for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, whose median is $82,900, the adjusted figure of $66,018 differs little from $67,150 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $79,910 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,870 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $82,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $103,420 |
| This salary | $82,900 |
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 Alaska | $67,150 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $67,150 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,084 |
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 | $82,900 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,260 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Alaska earn under $82,900 and half over. The published range runs $50,870 at the tenth percentile to $103,420 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Alaska the take-home figure of $67,150, from $82,900, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 133 of 430 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $66,018, the adjusted value of that $82,900 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alaska. 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 133 of 430 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $50,870 to $103,420; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Alaska is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $67,150 from $82,900. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 133 of 430 locally.
- This $66,018 adjusted figure, worked from $82,900, 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 133 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 133 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $79,910, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $50,870 at the bottom tenth to $103,420 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Alaska costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $66,018 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $67,150 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Alaska is $79,910. 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 ($50,870 to $103,420) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alaska rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Alaska's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $66,018 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Alaska levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $67,150 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.