Rehabilitation Counselors in Rhode Island

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,617
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$8,403
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,080
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$47,020
Kept after tax
$38,617
Worth in national money
$38,080
State rank
31
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island sits in the middle of the pack for rehabilitation counselors. The median is $47,020, ranking 31 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Rhode Island, this one sits low: 341 of 452 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $47,020 the take-home is $38,617, which is worth about $38,080 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $59,310, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Rhode Island occupies the middle band for rehabilitation counselors: a median of $47,020, ranking 31 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Rehabilitation counselors occupies position 341 of 452 in Rhode Island's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for rehabilitation counselors on its $47,020 median: $38,617 retained after tax becomes $38,080 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $59,310 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Rehabilitation Counselors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,670 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $85,800 |
| This salary | $47,020 |
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 Rhode Island | $38,617 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,961 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,043 |
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 | $45,348 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,680 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,020 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,670 and the ninetieth is $85,800 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $38,617, from $47,020, 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 341 of 452 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,080, the adjusted value of that $47,020 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 341 of 452 in the state.
- The Rhode Island median of $47,020 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,670 to $85,800. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $38,617 from $47,020. 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 341 of 452 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $38,080 — the adjusted value of that $47,020 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 341 of 452 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 $59,310 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $46,670, the highest tenth $85,800, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $38,080 of national purchasing power.
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 Rhode Island's own levy, $38,617 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 Rhode Island is $59,310. 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 ($46,670) and the ninetieth ($85,800) 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?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $38,080 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 $38,617 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.