Tour and Travel Guides in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,165
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$7,835
17.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,900
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$46,000
Kept after tax
$38,165
Worth in national money
$33,900
State rank
4
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- California is one of the better-paying states for tour and travel guides. The middle earner takes $46,000, which ranks 4 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 20.67% above the national middle.
- Against 492 occupations California publishes, tour and travel guides lands at 418. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $46,000 the take-home is $38,165; in national-average money that behaves like $33,900. The average comes to $49,180, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- California ranks 4 of 50 states publishing a median for tour and travel guides, at $46,000 — about 20.67% 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.
- Within California, this work ranks 418 of 492 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Take-home for tour and travel guides in California, on $46,000, is $38,165; deflated by the state's price level, $33,900. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $49,180 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Tour and Travel Guides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,500 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $66,220 |
| This salary | $46,000 |
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 California | $38,165 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,141 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,379 |
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 | $44,786 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,714 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of tour and travel guides in California earn under $46,000 and half over. The published range runs $36,500 at the tenth percentile to $66,220 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $38,165 take-home in California comes from $46,000. 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 418 of 492.
- Two cautions on $33,900, the adjusted value of that $46,000 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of California. 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 418 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for tour and travel guides in California, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,500 to $66,220; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $38,165, from $46,000, assumes a single California 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 418 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 50 for it.
- This $33,900 adjusted figure, worked from $46,000, 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 418 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 418 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $49,180, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $36,500 at the tenth percentile, $66,220 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $33,900 of national purchasing power.
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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,165 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 California is $49,180. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,500 to $66,220) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $33,900 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 $38,165 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.