Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Kentucky
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,751
after federal, FICA and Kentucky tax
Tax takes
$12,599
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,203
Kentucky costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kentucky — 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
$64,350
Kept after tax
$51,751
Worth in national money
$57,203
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Kentucky pays this job around $64,350 at the midpoint, 21 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Kentucky, this sits in the middle: 159 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Kentucky is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $64,350 the take-home is $51,751; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $57,203 would nationally. The average comes to $65,740, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors the Kentucky median is $64,350, ranking 21 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors ranks 159 of 491 occupations in Kentucky 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 Kentucky, on $64,350, is $51,751 — equivalent to $57,203 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 $65,740 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 | $40,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,390 |
| This salary | $64,350 |
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 Kentucky | $51,751 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,885 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,751 |
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 | $61,693 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,118 |
| 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 Kentucky earn under $64,350 and half over. The published range runs $40,840 at the tenth percentile to $99,390 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Kentucky the take-home figure of $51,751, from $64,350, 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 159 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $57,203, the adjusted value of that $64,350 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Kentucky. 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 159 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Kentucky, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $40,840 to $99,390; 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 Kentucky is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $51,751 from $64,350. 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 159 of 491 locally.
- This $57,203 adjusted figure, worked from $64,350, 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 159 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 159 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $40,840 and the top tenth $99,390 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Kentucky is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $57,203 in national terms.
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 Kentucky adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,751 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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($40,840) and the ninetieth ($99,390) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Kentucky'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 $57,203 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 $51,751 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kentucky 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.