Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,930
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$10,320
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,406
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$58,250
Kept after tax
$47,930
Worth in national money
$47,406
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Arizona. The middle earner gets $58,250. That is 42 of 51 states, and about 9.45% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 250 among 491 occupations Arizona publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $58,250, tax leaves $47,930, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $47,406 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $61,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- For educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, Arizona sits in the lower band at $58,250, ranking 42 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 9.45%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 250 of 491 in Arizona 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.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors — median $58,250 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $47,930 retained, $47,406 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $61,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,250 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,240 |
| This salary | $58,250 |
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 Arizona | $47,930 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,984 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,002 |
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 | $56,939 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,630 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 Arizona earn under $58,250 and half over. The published range runs $46,400 at the tenth percentile to $82,240 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $47,930 take-home in Arizona comes from $58,250. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 250 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $47,406 uses one figure for the whole of Arizona. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 250.
- Figures are distribution medians for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Arizona, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,400 to $82,240; 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.
- Retained pay of $47,930, from $58,250, assumes a single Arizona filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 250 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $47,406, worked from $58,250, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Arizona address, on work sitting at 250 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $61,270, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $46,400 at the tenth percentile, $82,240 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Arizona run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $47,406 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Arizona adds its own income tax on top — which is why $47,930 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Arizona is $61,270. 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 ($46,400 to $82,240) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $47,406 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $47,930 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.
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.