Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,867
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$17,043
21.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,901
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$77,910
Kept after tax
$60,867
Worth in national money
$55,901
State rank
6
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New Jersey pays this job a middle wage of $77,910, ranking 6 of 51 states and sitting about 21.11% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 198 among 490 occupations New Jersey publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $77,910, tax leaves $60,867 — and because New Jersey is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $55,901 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $81,430, since top earners drag the number up.
- New Jersey's median for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors is $77,910, about 21.11% above the national figure and 6 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 198 of 490 in New Jersey 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 tax, $60,867 remains from the New Jersey median of $77,910 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $55,901 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $81,430 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $57,850 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $108,500 |
| This salary | $77,910 |
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 New Jersey | $60,867 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,640 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,589 |
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 | $73,968 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,017 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 New Jersey earn under $77,910 and half over. The published range runs $57,850 at the tenth percentile to $108,500 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In New Jersey the take-home figure of $60,867, from $77,910, 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 198 of 490 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of New Jersey, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $55,901, the adjusted value of that $77,910 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 198 of 490 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in New Jersey, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $57,850 to $108,500; 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 New Jersey is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $60,867 from $77,910. 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 198 of 490 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New Jersey, so $55,901 — the adjusted value of that $77,910 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 198 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $81,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $57,850 at the tenth percentile, $108,500 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New Jersey costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $55,901 rather than its face figure.
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 New Jersey's own levy, $60,867 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.
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 New Jersey is $81,430. 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 ($57,850 to $108,500) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Jersey rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $55,901 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $60,867 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.