Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,040
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$11,210
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,671
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$59,250
Kept after tax
$48,040
Worth in national money
$42,671
State rank
30
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. California pays this job around $59,250 at the midpoint, 30 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 303 among 492 occupations California publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $59,250, tax leaves $48,040 — and because California is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $42,671 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $69,080, since top earners drag the number up.
- For substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors the California median is $59,250, ranking 30 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 303 of 492 in California places substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $48,040 remains from the California median of $59,250 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $42,671 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $69,080 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,640 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,250 |
| Top tenth earn over | $111,080 |
| This salary | $59,250 |
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 California | $48,040 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,787 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,563 |
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 | $57,075 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,357 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
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 substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors in California earn under $59,250 and half over. The published range runs $44,640 at the tenth percentile to $111,080 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In California the take-home figure of $48,040, from $59,250, 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 303 of 492 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $42,671 uses one figure for the whole of California. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 303.
- Figures are distribution medians for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors in California, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $44,640 to $111,080; 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.
- Take-home for California is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $48,040 from $59,250. 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 303 of 492 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $42,671, worked from $59,250, 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 California address, on work sitting at 303 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $69,080, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $44,640 and the top tenth $111,080 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. California costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $42,671 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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $48,040 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 California is $69,080. 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 ($44,640) and the ninetieth ($111,080) 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?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $42,671 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 $48,040 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.