Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,825
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$8,005
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,748
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$51,830
Kept after tax
$43,825
Worth in national money
$49,748
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- South Dakota is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $51,830, ranking 51 of 51 states — about 19.43% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in South Dakota, this sits in the middle: 231 of 457 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $51,830 you keep $43,825 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $49,748 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $53,980, since top earners drag the number up.
- South Dakota ranks 51 of 51 for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, with a median of $51,830 — about 19.43% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors ranks 231 of 457 occupations in South Dakota 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.
- Retained pay in South Dakota is $43,825 after the full tax stack, from $51,830. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $49,748 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $53,980 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $41,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,830 |
| Top tenth earn over | $65,990 |
| This salary | $51,830 |
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 South Dakota | $43,825 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,825 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,648 |
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 | $51,830 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,622 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
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 South Dakota earn under $51,830 and half over. The published range runs $41,560 at the tenth percentile to $65,990 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $43,825 take-home in South Dakota comes from $51,830. 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 231 of 457.
- One number stands for prices across all of South Dakota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $49,748, the adjusted value of that $51,830 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 231 of 457 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in South Dakota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $41,560 to $65,990; 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 $43,825, from $51,830, assumes a single South Dakota 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 231 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 51 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for South Dakota, so $49,748 — the adjusted value of that $51,830 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 231 of 457 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 $53,980 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $41,560 at the bottom tenth to $65,990 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. South Dakota is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $49,748 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $43,825 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 South Dakota is $53,980. 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 ($41,560 to $65,990) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $49,748 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $43,825 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.