Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,730
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$20,770
24.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,385
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$86,500
Kept after tax
$65,730
Worth in national money
$58,385
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- California is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $86,500, which ranks 1 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 34.46% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 165 among 492 occupations California publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $86,500, tax leaves $65,730 — and because California is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $58,385 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $93,610, since top earners drag the number up.
- California ranks 1 of 51 states publishing a median for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, at $86,500 — about 34.46% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Position 165 of 492 in California 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.
- After tax, $65,730 remains from the California median of $86,500 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $58,385 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $93,610 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $51,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $86,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $136,660 |
| This salary | $86,500 |
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 California | $65,730 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $69,683 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$13,324 |
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 | $80,882 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$18,404 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $86,500 as a midpoint for California, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $51,890 and the ninetieth is $136,660 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In California the take-home figure of $65,730, from $86,500, 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 165 of 492 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $58,385 uses one figure for the whole of California. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 165.
- The California median of $86,500 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $51,890 to $136,660. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for California is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $65,730 from $86,500. 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 165 of 492 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $58,385, worked from $86,500, 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 California address, on work sitting at 165 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $93,610, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $51,890 and the top tenth $136,660 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. California costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $58,385 rather than its face figure.
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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $65,730 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 California is $93,610. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($51,890) and the ninetieth ($136,660) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $58,385 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 $65,730 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.