Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Oregon
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,461
after federal, FICA and Oregon tax
Tax takes
$16,229
24.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,186
Oregon costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oregon — 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
$66,690
Kept after tax
$50,461
Worth in national money
$48,186
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Oregon is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $66,690, which ranks 17 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 3.67% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Oregon, this sits in the middle: 225 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $66,690, tax leaves $50,461 — and because Oregon is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $48,186 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $77,070, since top earners drag the number up.
- Oregon ranks 17 of 51 states publishing a median for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, at $66,690 — about 3.67% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors ranks 225 of 489 occupations in Oregon 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 tax, $50,461 remains from the Oregon median of $66,690 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $48,186 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $77,070 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 | $50,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $66,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $119,780 |
| This salary | $66,690 |
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 Oregon | $50,461 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $55,746 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,181 |
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 | $60,089 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,127 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 105 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Oregon earn less than $66,690. The published range is $50,190 up to $119,780, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Oregon the take-home figure of $50,461, from $66,690, 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 225 of 489 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $48,186 uses one figure for the whole of Oregon. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 489 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 225.
- Reported values are medians; for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Oregon the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $50,190 to $119,780. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Oregon is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $50,461 from $66,690. 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 225 of 489 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $48,186, worked from $66,690, 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 Oregon address, on work sitting at 225 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $77,070, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $50,190, the highest tenth $119,780, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Oregon costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $48,186 rather than its face figure.
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 Oregon adds its own income tax on top — which is why $50,461 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 Oregon is $77,070. 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 ($50,190) and the ninetieth ($119,780) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Oregon's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $48,186 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 $50,461 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oregon 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.