Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,097
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$11,613
19.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,953
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$58,710
Kept after tax
$47,097
Worth in national money
$53,953
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Mississippi. The middle earner gets $58,710. That is 40 of 51 states, and about 8.74% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Mississippi, this sits in the middle: 167 of 486 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Mississippi does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $58,710 you keep $47,097, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $53,953 would elsewhere. The average is lower, $57,380, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, Mississippi sits in the lower band at $58,710, ranking 40 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 8.74%. 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 167 of 486 occupations in Mississippi 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 Mississippi income tax, retained pay for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors on $58,710 is $47,097. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $53,953 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 $57,380 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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 | $38,580 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,610 |
| This salary | $58,710 |
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 Mississippi | $47,097 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,353 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,165 |
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 | $55,902 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,828 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,710 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,580 and the ninetieth is $76,610 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Mississippi's $47,097, worked from $58,710. 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 167 of 486.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $53,953 uses one figure for the whole of Mississippi. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 486 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 167.
- The Mississippi median of $58,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,580 to $76,610. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Mississippi take-home of $47,097, on $58,710 for work ranking 167 of 486 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 167 of 486 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $53,953, worked from $58,710, 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 Mississippi address, on work sitting at 167 of 486 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $38,580 at the bottom tenth to $76,610 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Mississippi sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $53,953 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 Mississippi's own levy, $47,097 remains.
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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($38,580 to $76,610) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $53,953 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 $47,097 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.