Pay · 21-1012
Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors earn $64,330 a year at the midpoint
The middle of the pay scale for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors is $64,330. A typical start is nearer $51,270; the top tenth earn about $104,770.
National figures for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, 21-1012, from the 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
- Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
- What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
- Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
- Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”
Educational, guidance, and career counselor earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%
Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.
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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →
Educational, guidance, and career counselor wages in each state
The 42 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.66 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.
| State | Median a year | Where most start | 10th to 90th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $86,500 | $51,890 | $51,890 — $136,660 | 45,140 |
| Washington | $82,670 | $57,980 | $57,980 — $125,950 | 6,610 |
| District of Columbia | $80,470 | $50,900 | $50,900 — $113,620 | 1,690 |
| Massachusetts | $79,930 | $59,460 | $59,460 — $117,630 | 11,460 |
| New Jersey | $77,910 | $57,850 | $57,850 — $108,500 | 8,190 |
| New Mexico | $77,880 | $46,660 | $46,660 — $103,110 | 1,780 |
| Maryland | $75,820 | $48,460 | $48,460 — $116,650 | 6,600 |
| Delaware | $74,070 | $47,750 | $47,750 — $96,140 | 1,700 |
| Connecticut | $73,910 | $46,510 | $46,510 — $108,540 | 3,370 |
| New York | $71,610 | $46,100 | $46,100 — $123,850 | 23,380 |
| New Hampshire | $71,080 | $47,990 | $47,990 — $96,630 | 1,650 |
| Texas | $67,900 | $42,380 | $42,380 — $101,830 | 31,730 |
| Virginia | $67,660 | $45,700 | $45,700 — $103,380 | 9,450 |
| Nevada | $66,710 | $46,570 | $46,570 — $94,530 | 2,250 |
| Oregon | $66,690 | $50,190 | $50,190 — $119,780 | 3,990 |
| Colorado | $64,780 | $48,690 | $48,690 — $97,960 | 6,530 |
| Minnesota | $64,600 | $47,870 | $47,870 — $94,100 | 4,200 |
| Kentucky | $64,350 | $40,840 | $40,840 — $99,390 | 5,030 |
| Georgia | $63,720 | $42,040 | $42,040 — $101,880 | 11,460 |
| Wisconsin | $62,690 | $47,470 | $47,470 — $86,510 | 5,330 |
| Nebraska | $62,500 | $45,050 | $45,050 — $100,160 | 2,190 |
| Illinois | $62,420 | $44,890 | $44,890 — $110,580 | 13,580 |
| Louisiana | $61,870 | $45,340 | $45,340 — $87,940 | 4,820 |
| Ohio | $61,760 | $43,010 | $43,010 — $99,810 | 13,250 |
| Utah | $61,320 | $37,260 | $37,260 — $101,780 | 4,070 |
| Pennsylvania | $60,880 | $46,200 | $46,200 — $97,810 | 13,570 |
| South Carolina | $60,340 | $39,800 | $39,800 — $86,250 | 6,460 |
| Idaho | $60,320 | $46,710 | $46,710 — $79,620 | 1,990 |
| Tennessee | $59,960 | $42,410 | $42,410 — $84,550 | 6,470 |
| Arkansas | $59,770 | $38,520 | $38,520 — $78,070 | 2,310 |
| Alabama | $59,570 | $37,670 | $37,670 — $78,570 | 4,410 |
| Michigan | $59,440 | $42,380 | $42,380 — $89,280 | 9,170 |
| Indiana | $59,260 | $41,180 | $41,180 — $82,690 | 5,610 |
| Mississippi | $58,710 | $38,580 | $38,580 — $76,610 | 2,620 |
| Maine | $58,630 | $45,300 | $45,300 — $82,460 | 1,780 |
| Arizona | $58,250 | $46,400 | $46,400 — $82,240 | 7,330 |
| Missouri | $58,040 | $41,890 | $41,890 — $78,740 | 8,890 |
| North Carolina | $57,630 | $40,400 | $40,400 — $74,070 | 9,430 |
| Kansas | $56,590 | $42,020 | $42,020 — $77,920 | 3,100 |
| Iowa | $56,540 | $43,470 | $43,470 — $77,110 | 3,690 |
| Florida | $53,140 | $38,290 | $38,290 — $82,780 | 22,800 |
| Oklahoma | $52,040 | $38,100 | $38,100 — $81,630 | 4,830 |
Resumes for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors
Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.
- Maintained accurate and completed student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- Counselled students regarding educational issues, such as course and program selection, class scheduling and registration, school adjustment, truancy, study habits, and career planning.
- Provided crisis intervention to students when difficult situations occur at schools.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Educational, guidance, and career counselor pay rate, hourly to yearly
Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.
No. 345 of 788 by median pay
Better paid than 56% of the occupations in the survey.
- 343 Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses $64,400
- 344 Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education $64,370
- 345 Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors $64,330
- 346 Wind Turbine Service Technicians $64,120
- 347 Health Education Specialists $64,070
Examples
Resumes written for this kind of work.
Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.
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What people often ask
What is an educational, guidance, and career counselor’s yearly income?
An educational, guidance, and career counselor makes a median of $64,330 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $51,270 and $82,870.
What is an educational, guidance, and career counselor’s hourly pay rate?
The median pay rate is $30.93 an hour; the average is $71,430 a year.
What is the starting pay for an educational, guidance, and career counselor?
Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $51,270 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $45,020.
Which state pays educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors the most?
California, with a median of $86,500 a year.
How many people work as educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors?
About 353,310 in the United States — number 345 of 788 occupations by median pay.
Jobs that pay about the same
Median pay within $190 of what educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors earn — $64,330 a year — but not always the same spread.
- $40 more Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education $64,370median a year 10th percentile: $48,080 90th percentile: $102,540
- $70 more Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses $64,400median a year 10th percentile: $49,740 90th percentile: $83,440
- $190 more Industrial Machinery Mechanics $64,520median a year 10th percentile: $46,120 90th percentile: $95,170