Tour and Travel Guides in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,092
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$8,358
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,535
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$44,450
Kept after tax
$36,092
Worth in national money
$33,535
State rank
8
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New York pays tour and travel guides a middle wage of $44,450, ranking 8 of 50 states and sitting about 16.61% above the national middle.
- Against 493 occupations New York publishes, tour and travel guides lands at 425. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $44,450, tax leaves $36,092 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $33,535 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $50,890, since top earners drag the number up.
- New York's median for tour and travel guides is $44,450, about 16.61% above the national figure and 8 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within New York, this work ranks 425 of 493 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.
- After tax, $36,092 remains from the New York median of $44,450 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $33,535 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $50,890 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $34,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,450 |
| Top tenth earn over | $85,740 |
| This salary | $44,450 |
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 New York | $36,092 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,896 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,462 |
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 | $42,206 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,606 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New York earn less than $44,450. The published range is $34,220 up to $85,740, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New York's $36,092, worked from $44,450. 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 425 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of New York, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $33,535, the adjusted value of that $44,450 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 425 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for tour and travel guides in New York the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,220 to $85,740. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The New York take-home of $36,092, on $44,450 for work ranking 425 of 493 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 425 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New York, so $33,535 — the adjusted value of that $44,450 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 425 of 493 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 $50,890 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $34,220 at the bottom tenth to $85,740 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New York costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $33,535 rather than its face figure.
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 New York's own levy, $36,092 remains.
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 New York is $50,890. 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 ($34,220) and the ninetieth ($85,740) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $33,535 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 $36,092 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.