Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$66,988
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$15,682
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,705
Washington costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Washington — 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
$82,670
Kept after tax
$66,988
Worth in national money
$61,705
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $82,670, which ranks 3 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 28.51% above the national middle.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Washington reports figures for, this is number 178.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $82,670 the take-home is $66,988; in national-average money that behaves like $61,705. The average comes to $87,680, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington ranks 3 of 51 states publishing a median for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, at $82,670 — about 28.51% 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.
- In Washington's occupational distribution, educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors sits at 178 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Take-home for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in Washington, on $82,670, is $66,988; deflated by the state's price level, $61,705. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $87,680 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $57,980 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $82,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $125,950 |
| This salary | $82,670 |
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 Washington | $66,988 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,988 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,231 |
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 | $82,670 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,988 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $82,670 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $57,980 and the ninetieth is $125,950 — 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 Washington's $66,988, worked from $82,670. 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 178 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $61,705, the adjusted value of that $82,670 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 178 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $82,670 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $57,980 to $125,950. 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 Washington take-home of $66,988, on $82,670 for work ranking 178 of 493 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 178 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $61,705 — the adjusted value of that $82,670 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 178 of 493 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 $87,680 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $57,980 at the bottom tenth to $125,950 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Washington costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $61,705 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $66,988 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 Washington is $87,680. 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 ($57,980) and the ninetieth ($125,950) 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?
Washington's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $61,705 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Washington levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $66,988 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.