Tour and Travel Guides in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,053
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$5,137
14.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,254
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Carolina — 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
$35,190
Kept after tax
$30,053
Worth in national money
$32,254
State rank
30
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. South Carolina is 30 of 50 states for tour and travel guides, with a middle wage of $35,190. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within South Carolina this is lower-paid work. Of 492 occupations the state publishes figures for, tour and travel guides ranks 435. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $35,190 you keep $30,053 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $32,254 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $44,790, since top earners drag the number up.
- South Carolina ranks 30 of 50 for tour and travel guides at $35,190. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation South Carolina reports, tour and travel guides ranks 435 of 492, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in South Carolina is $30,053 after the full tax stack, from $35,190. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $32,254 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $44,790 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Tour and Travel Guides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $22,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,190 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,370 |
| This salary | $35,190 |
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 South Carolina | $30,053 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,455 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$914 |
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 | $34,690 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,105 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
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 South Carolina earn under $35,190 and half over. The published range runs $22,770 at the tenth percentile to $60,370 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In South Carolina the take-home figure of $30,053, from $35,190, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 435 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $32,254, the adjusted value of that $35,190 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Carolina. 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 435 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for tour and travel guides in South Carolina, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $22,770 to $60,370; 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.
- Take-home for South Carolina is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $30,053 from $35,190. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 435 of 492 locally.
- This $32,254 adjusted figure, worked from $35,190, 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 435 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 435 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 $44,790, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $22,770 and the top tenth $60,370 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in South Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $32,254 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 South Carolina's own levy, $30,053 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 South Carolina is $44,790. 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 ($22,770) and the ninetieth ($60,370) 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?
South Carolina'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 $32,254 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 $30,053 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South Carolina 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.