Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselor and Advisor Salary (2026), outlook and how to become one

Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors earn a median of $64,330 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025), 26% above the $50,980 US median across all occupations. That works out at $30.93/hr. The middle half earn between $51,270 and $82,870. The top 10% earn $104,770 or more.

The median hourly wage for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors is $30.93 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). On a full-year basis the $64,330 annual median works out to about $5,360 a month before tax.

BLS does not publish a starting salary. The nearest measure is the low end of the pay range: the lowest-paid 10% of educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors earn less than $45,020 a year and the bottom quarter less than $51,270 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). New workers often start near that end, but where a particular job starts depends on the employer, the state and the credentials you bring, so read these as the bottom of the range rather than a guaranteed entry wage.

A minority do. $100,000 sits between the 75th percentile ($82,870) and the 90th ($104,770), so roughly 10% to 25% of educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors earn more than that (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No state's median reaches $100,000; the highest is California at $86,500.

The highest state medians for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors are California ($86,500), Alaska ($82,900), Washington ($82,670) (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Adjusted for local prices using BEA Regional Price Parities, New Mexico moves to the top at $84,458.

BLS does not split educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors' pay by specialty or employer, but its range shows how far the top end runs: the highest-paid 10% earn more than $104,770, against a median of $64,330 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Location moves pay the most in the published data: the best-paying states are California ($86,500), Alaska ($82,900), Washington ($82,670). BLS also counts 2 specialty careers inside this occupation (disability services coordinator, independent educational consultant), which share its federal pay figures.

Yes. BLS reports a master's degree as the typical entry-level education for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors, and O*NET rates the preparation needed as extensive preparation. In O*NET's survey of people already doing the job, 56.3% hold bachelor's degree.

It is stable rather than fast-growing: employment is projected to change 2.9% over 2025–2035, about the same as the 3.5% projected across all occupations (BLS EP, 2025–2035). BLS still projects about 27,800 openings a year, mostly from workers retiring or moving to other work.

School counselors help students develop academic and social skills and plans for after graduation. A core O*NET task: attend meetings, educational conferences, and training workshops, and serve on committees. Employers most often ask for Data base reporting software, Data base user interface and query software, Document management software.

Yes, for most. In O*NET's survey of people in the job, 40% of educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors usually work more than 40 hours a week, 57% work exactly 40 and 4% work fewer. 99% say their schedule is regular and 1% irregular. Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, Work Context.

O*NET scores Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors highest on the Social, Conventional and Enterprising interest areas, so the work mixes teaching, helping and working directly with other people with organising, following procedures and working precisely with data. On NueCareer's MBTI-to-interest mapping the closest types are ENFJ, ESFJ. Personality is a fit signal, not a gate. The free NueCareer quiz scores your own profile against all 1,731 careers in the bank.

A master's degree in school counseling or a related field such as counseling or psychology. Nearly all states and the District of Columbia require school counselors to hold one. CACREP-accredited entry-level programs require a minimum of 60 semester credit hours (or 90 quarter hours). Individual states set their own totals — New York, for example, requires 48 graduate semester hours for the Initial School Counselor certificate and 60 for the Professional certificate.

Yes, and it is issued by the state you work in, not nationally. Public school counselors must hold a state-issued credential, which the state may call a certification, a license, or an endorsement. What differs between states is the graduate credit-hour total, the accepted examination, the practicum and internship hours, and whether an initial credential can later be upgraded to a professional one. Most states require a criminal background check as part of credentialing. Some employers prefer or require candidates to have classroom teaching experience or a teaching license before certification. Career counselors and academic advisors are treated differently: some states require licensure for career counselors, but college academic and career advisors typically need no license at all — employers may prefer a bachelor's degree and work experience, with optional certifications available from some professional associations.

The Praxis 5422 (Praxis School Counselor). A 120-minute, 120-question selected-response test taken as part of state school counselor certification. ETS advises confirming that your certifying state accepts this test before registering, because states choose their own examinations.

Women make up 77.0% of educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, against 47.1% of all employed people: a female-dominated occupation. Only 17.2% are 55 or older (23.2% across all jobs): a young workforce. The median worker is 41.2 years old (all workers: 42.1). Source: BLS Current Population Survey, 2025 annual averages.