Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors in Michigan
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,377
after federal, FICA and Michigan tax
Tax takes
$12,313
20.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,426
Michigan costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Michigan — 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
$61,690
Kept after tax
$49,377
Worth in national money
$52,426
State rank
18
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Michigan sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $61,690, ranking 18 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Michigan, this sits in the middle: 219 of 493 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 $61,690 you keep $49,377 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $52,426 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $65,430, since top earners drag the number up.
- Michigan occupies the middle band for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors: a median of $61,690, ranking 18 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.
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors ranks 219 of 493 occupations in Michigan 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 Michigan is $49,377 after the full tax stack, from $61,690. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $52,426 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $65,430 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $94,400 |
| This salary | $61,690 |
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 Michigan | $49,377 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,748 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$826 |
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 | $58,739 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$999 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,690 as a midpoint for Michigan, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,490 and the ninetieth is $94,400 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $49,377 take-home in Michigan comes from $61,690. 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 219 of 493.
- Two cautions on $52,426, the adjusted value of that $61,690 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Michigan. 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 219 of 493 locally.
- The Michigan median of $61,690 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,490 to $94,400. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $49,377, from $61,690, assumes a single Michigan 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 219 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 18 of 51 for it.
- This $52,426 adjusted figure, worked from $61,690, 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 219 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 219 of 493 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 $65,430, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,490, the highest tenth $94,400, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Michigan sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $52,426 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Michigan's own levy, $49,377 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Michigan is $65,430. 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 ($38,490) and the ninetieth ($94,400) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Michigan'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 $52,426 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 $49,377 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Michigan 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.