Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors in Connecticut
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,527
after federal, FICA and Connecticut tax
Tax takes
$13,063
20.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,729
Connecticut costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Connecticut — 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
$63,590
Kept after tax
$50,527
Worth in national money
$48,729
State rank
10
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Connecticut is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $63,590, which ranks 10 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 7.14% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Connecticut, this sits in the middle: 250 of 482 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Connecticut is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $63,590 the take-home is $50,527; in national-average money that behaves like $48,729. The average comes to $68,450, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Connecticut ranks 10 of 51 states publishing a median for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors, at $63,590 — about 7.14% 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.
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors ranks 250 of 482 occupations in Connecticut 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.
- Take-home for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors in Connecticut, on $63,590, is $50,527; deflated by the state's price level, $48,729. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $68,450 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $44,080 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,540 |
| This salary | $63,590 |
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 Connecticut | $50,527 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,275 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,094 |
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 | $60,171 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,370 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Connecticut earn less than $63,590. The published range is $44,080 up to $99,540, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $50,527 take-home in Connecticut comes from $63,590. 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 250 of 482.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $48,729 uses one figure for the whole of Connecticut. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 482 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 250.
- Reported values are medians; for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors in Connecticut the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $44,080 to $99,540. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $50,527, from $63,590, assumes a single Connecticut 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 250 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $48,729, worked from $63,590, 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 Connecticut address, on work sitting at 250 of 482 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 $68,450 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 $44,080, the highest tenth $99,540, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Connecticut run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $48,729 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Connecticut adds its own income tax on top — which is why $50,527 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 Connecticut is $68,450. 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 ($44,080) and the ninetieth ($99,540) 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?
Connecticut's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $48,729 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 $50,527 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Connecticut 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.