Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Michigan
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,665
after federal, FICA and Michigan tax
Tax takes
$11,775
19.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,608
Michigan costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Michigan — 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
$59,440
Kept after tax
$47,665
Worth in national money
$50,608
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Michigan pays this job a middle wage of $59,440, 37 of 51 states and about 7.6% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Michigan, this sits in the middle: 243 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Michigan does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $59,440 you keep $47,665, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $50,608 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $62,900, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Michigan's $59,440 median for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors places it 37 of 51 states, about 7.6% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors ranks 243 of 493 occupations in Michigan 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.
- After federal, FICA and Michigan income tax, retained pay for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors on $59,440 is $47,665. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $50,608 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $62,900 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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 | $42,380 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $89,280 |
| This salary | $59,440 |
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 Michigan | $47,665 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,940 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$784 |
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 | $56,608 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$948 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Michigan earn less than $59,440. The published range is $42,380 up to $89,280, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $47,665 take-home in Michigan comes from $59,440. 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 243 of 493.
- Two cautions on $50,608, the adjusted value of that $59,440 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Michigan. 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 243 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Michigan the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $42,380 to $89,280. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $47,665, from $59,440, assumes a single Michigan 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 243 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 51 for it.
- This $50,608 adjusted figure, worked from $59,440, 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 243 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 243 of 493 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 $62,900 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $42,380, the highest tenth $89,280, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Michigan sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $50,608 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Michigan's own levy, $47,665 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 Michigan is $62,900. 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 ($42,380) and the ninetieth ($89,280) 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?
Michigan'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 $50,608 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 $47,665 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Michigan 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.