Rehabilitation Counselors in North Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,841
after federal, FICA and North Dakota tax
Tax takes
$10,209
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,658
North Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North 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
$63,050
Kept after tax
$52,841
Worth in national money
$59,658
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for rehabilitation counselors is strong here. North Dakota's middle earner gets $63,050, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 34.58% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in North Dakota, this sits in the middle: 196 of 460 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 $63,050 you keep $52,841 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $59,658 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $65,880, since top earners drag the number up.
- For rehabilitation counselors, North Dakota sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $63,050, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 34.58% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Rehabilitation counselors ranks 196 of 460 occupations in North 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 North Dakota is $52,841 after the full tax stack, from $63,050. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $59,658 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $65,880 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Rehabilitation Counselors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $58,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,120 |
| This salary | $63,050 |
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 North Dakota | $52,841 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,841 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,282 |
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 | $63,050 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$6,805 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in North Dakota earn less than $63,050. The published range is $58,190 up to $76,120, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind North Dakota's $52,841, worked from $63,050. 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 196 of 460.
- Two cautions on $59,658, the adjusted value of that $63,050 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Dakota. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 196 of 460 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for rehabilitation counselors in North Dakota the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $58,190 to $76,120. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The North Dakota take-home of $52,841, on $63,050 for work ranking 196 of 460 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 196 of 460 in the state.
- This $59,658 adjusted figure, worked from $63,050, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 196 of 460 in the state. The occupation ranks 196 of 460 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 $65,880 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $58,190 at the tenth percentile, $76,120 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in North Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $59,658 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 North Dakota adds its own income tax on top — which is why $52,841 of this wage survives to your account.
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 North Dakota is $65,880. 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 ($58,190 to $76,120) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to North Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North 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 $59,658 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 $52,841 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Dakota 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.