Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors in Oregon

Two armchairs facing each other in a welcoming counseling room.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$55,328

after federal, FICA and Oregon tax

Tax takes

$19,262

25.8% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$52,833

Oregon costs more than average

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

$74,590

Kept after tax

$55,328

Worth in national money

$52,833

State rank

2

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for this job is strong here. Oregon's middle earner gets $74,590, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 25.68% ahead of the national figure.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 489 occupations Oregon reports figures for, this is number 197.
  • Oregon is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $74,590 the take-home is $55,328; in national-average money that behaves like $52,833. The average comes to $75,540, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • For substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors, Oregon sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $74,590, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 25.68% 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.
  • In Oregon's occupational distribution, substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors sits at 197 of 489 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
  • Take-home for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors in Oregon, on $74,590, is $55,328; deflated by the state's price level, $52,833. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $75,540 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

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$49,860
Half earn under$74,590
Top tenth earn over$102,830
This salary$74,590

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

Compare with
+$5,976take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Oregon$55,328
Take-home in Texas$61,304
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$10,253

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

Moving to
$0now · $74,590$61,183
$61,183in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$66,145
You could take a cut of−$13,407
Prices in Texas97 vs 105

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $74,590 as a midpoint for Oregon, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,860 and the ninetieth is $102,830 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • That $55,328 take-home in Oregon comes from $74,590. 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 197 of 489.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,833 uses one figure for the whole of Oregon. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 489 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 197.
  • The Oregon median of $74,590 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,860 to $102,830. 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 $55,328, from $74,590, assumes a single Oregon 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 197 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 2 of 51 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,833, worked from $74,590, 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 Oregon address, on work sitting at 197 of 489 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $49,860 at the tenth percentile, $102,830 at the ninetieth.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

The number and the value are different things. Oregon costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $52,833 rather than its face figure.

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; Oregon then takes its own share, leaving $55,328.

Can I compare this job across every state?

All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($49,860 to $102,830) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Oregon rather than a national figure.

How does the state price level affect real compensation?

Oregon's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $52,833 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 $55,328 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oregon 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.