Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors in Nebraska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,221
after federal, FICA and Nebraska tax
Tax takes
$12,549
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,676
Nebraska costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Nebraska — 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
$63,770
Kept after tax
$51,221
Worth in national money
$56,676
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Nebraska's middle earner gets $63,770, putting the state 9 of 51 — about 7.45% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Nebraska, this sits in the middle: 173 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Nebraska does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $63,770 you keep $51,221, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $56,676 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $70,220, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors, Nebraska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $63,770, ranking 9 of 51 and running about 7.45% 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.
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors ranks 173 of 488 occupations in Nebraska 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.
- After federal, FICA and Nebraska income tax, retained pay for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors on $63,770 is $51,221. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $56,676 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $70,220 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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 | $42,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $109,610 |
| This salary | $63,770 |
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 Nebraska | $51,221 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,419 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,704 |
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 | $61,034 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,060 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,770 as a midpoint for Nebraska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,400 and the ninetieth is $109,610 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $51,221 take-home in Nebraska comes from $63,770. 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 173 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Nebraska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $56,676, the adjusted value of that $63,770 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 173 of 488 in the state.
- The Nebraska median of $63,770 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,400 to $109,610. 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 $51,221, from $63,770, assumes a single Nebraska 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 173 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 9 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Nebraska, so $56,676 — the adjusted value of that $63,770 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 173 of 488 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 $70,220 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 $42,400, the highest tenth $109,610, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Nebraska is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $56,676 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Nebraska then takes its own share, leaving $51,221.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Nebraska is $70,220. 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 ($42,400) and the ninetieth ($109,610) 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?
Nebraska'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 $56,676 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 $51,221 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Nebraska 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.