Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,781
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$11,809
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,776
Kansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kansas — 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
$56,590
Kept after tax
$44,781
Worth in national money
$49,776
State rank
46
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Kansas. The middle earner gets $56,590. That is 46 of 51 states, and about 12.03% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Kansas, this sits in the middle: 240 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Kansas is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $56,590 the take-home is $44,781; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $49,776 would nationally. The average comes to $58,560, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, Kansas sits in the lower band at $56,590, ranking 46 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 12.03%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors ranks 240 of 488 occupations in Kansas 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.
- Post-tax income for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Kansas, on $56,590, is $44,781 — equivalent to $49,776 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $58,560 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 | $42,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,920 |
| This salary | $56,590 |
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 Kansas | $44,781 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,650 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$741 |
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 | $53,019 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$896 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
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 Kansas earn under $56,590 and half over. The published range runs $42,020 at the tenth percentile to $77,920 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $44,781 take-home in Kansas comes from $56,590. 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 240 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kansas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $49,776, the adjusted value of that $56,590 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 240 of 488 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Kansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $42,020 to $77,920; 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 $44,781, from $56,590, assumes a single Kansas 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 240 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 46 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kansas, so $49,776 — the adjusted value of that $56,590 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 240 of 488 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 $58,560 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $42,020 at the tenth percentile, $77,920 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Kansas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $49,776 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Kansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $44,781 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 Kansas is $58,560. 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 ($42,020 to $77,920) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Kansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Kansas'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 $49,776 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 $44,781 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kansas 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.