Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,935
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$12,285
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,637
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$62,220
Kept after tax
$49,935
Worth in national money
$53,637
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Wisconsin pays this job a middle wage of $62,220, ranking 16 of 51 states and sitting about 4.84% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Wisconsin, this sits in the middle: 226 of 491 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 $62,220 you keep $49,935 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $53,637 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $68,280, since top earners drag the number up.
- Wisconsin's median for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors is $62,220, about 4.84% above the national figure and 16 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors ranks 226 of 491 occupations in Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin is $49,935 after the full tax stack, from $62,220. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $53,637 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $68,280 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 | $46,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $94,640 |
| This salary | $62,220 |
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 Wisconsin | $49,935 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,174 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$53 |
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 | $59,433 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$64 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $62,220 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,510 and the ninetieth is $94,640 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Wisconsin's $49,935, worked from $62,220. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 226 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $53,637 uses one figure for the whole of Wisconsin. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 226.
- The Wisconsin median of $62,220 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,510 to $94,640. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Wisconsin take-home of $49,935, on $62,220 for work ranking 226 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 226 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $53,637, worked from $62,220, 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 Wisconsin address, on work sitting at 226 of 491 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 $68,280, 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 $46,510, the highest tenth $94,640, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $53,637.
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 Wisconsin adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,935 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 Wisconsin is $68,280. 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 ($46,510) and the ninetieth ($94,640) 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?
Wisconsin'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 $53,637 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 $49,935 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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.