Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,738
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$11,162
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,791
Montana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Montana — 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
$57,900
Kept after tax
$46,738
Worth in national money
$51,791
State rank
44
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Montana pays this job a middle wage of $57,900, 44 of 51 states and about 10% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 239 among 475 occupations Montana publishes pay for.
- Here is where Montana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $57,900 you keep $46,738, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $51,791 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $63,130, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Montana's $57,900 median for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors places it 44 of 51 states, about 10% 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.
- Position 239 of 475 in Montana places educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After federal, FICA and Montana income tax, retained pay for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors on $57,900 is $46,738. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $51,791 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 $63,130 sits above the median, the right skew typical of 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 | $39,180 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $87,610 |
| This salary | $57,900 |
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 Montana | $46,738 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,703 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,672 |
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 | $55,455 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,022 |
| 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 Montana earn under $57,900 and half over. The published range runs $39,180 at the tenth percentile to $87,610 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $46,738 take-home in Montana comes from $57,900. 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 239 of 475.
- One number stands for prices across all of Montana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $51,791, the adjusted value of that $57,900 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 239 of 475 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Montana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,180 to $87,610; 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 $46,738, from $57,900, assumes a single Montana 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 239 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 44 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Montana, so $51,791 — the adjusted value of that $57,900 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 239 of 475 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 $63,130 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $39,180 and the top tenth $87,610 — 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. Montana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $51,791 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 Montana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $46,738 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 Montana is $63,130. 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 ($39,180) and the ninetieth ($87,610) 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?
Montana'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 $51,791 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 $46,738 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Montana 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.