Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,532
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$13,198
21.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,685
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$61,730
Kept after tax
$48,532
Worth in national money
$44,685
State rank
29
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Hawaii is 29 of 51 states for this job, with a middle wage of $61,730. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Hawaii, this sits in the middle: 228 of 437 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Hawaii is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $61,730 the take-home is $48,532; in national-average money that behaves like $44,685. The average comes to $68,650, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Hawaii ranks 29 of 51 for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors at $61,730. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors ranks 228 of 437 occupations in Hawaii by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Take-home for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Hawaii, on $61,730, is $48,532; deflated by the state's price level, $44,685. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $68,650 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $49,350 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,730 |
| Top tenth earn over | $93,720 |
| This salary | $61,730 |
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 Hawaii | $48,532 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,780 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,601 |
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 | $57,687 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,401 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Hawaii earn less than $61,730. The published range is $49,350 up to $93,720, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Hawaii's $48,532, worked from $61,730. 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 228 of 437.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $44,685 uses one figure for the whole of Hawaii. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 437 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 228.
- Reported values are medians; for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Hawaii the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,350 to $93,720. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Hawaii take-home of $48,532, on $61,730 for work ranking 228 of 437 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 228 of 437 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $44,685, worked from $61,730, 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 Hawaii address, on work sitting at 228 of 437 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 $68,650, 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 — $49,350 at the tenth percentile, $93,720 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $44,685 of national purchasing power.
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 Hawaii's own levy, $48,532 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Hawaii is $68,650. 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 ($49,350 to $93,720) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Hawaii rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $44,685 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 $48,532 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.