What Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors earn in Strafford County, NH
The median pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH is $80,760 per year, which works out to $38.83 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area, the labor market that Strafford County, NH belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $87,320, which is 8.1% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 8,170 people working in this occupation across the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Strafford County, NH has roughly 132,575 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $60,390 a year ($29.03 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $122,910 or more ($59.09 an hour). That is a gap of $62,520 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $66,280 at the 25th percentile and $102,500 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.0 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH is $38.83. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $80,760, and the same salary is $6,730 a month before taxes or about $3,106 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $31.43 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors this way: "Advise and assist students and provide educational and vocational guidance services."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations"; "Provide crisis intervention to students when difficult situations occur at schools"; "Prepare students for later educational experiences by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks"; "Provide students with information on topics such as college degree programs and admission requirements, financial aid opportunities, trade and technical schools, and apprenticeship programs".
Job outlook for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 389,500 jobs in 2025 to 400,900 in 2035, a change of +2.9%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 27,800 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 7.1% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: master's degree. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $64,330 for this occupation; the Strafford County, NH median of $80,760 is 25.5% above it.
How pay in Strafford County, NH compares
Compared with the New Hampshire average
Strafford County, NH pays above the state benchmark. The New Hampshire employment-weighted average for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors is $78,746; the local median of $80,760 beats it by $2,014, or 2.6%. Within New Hampshire, Strafford County, NH already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors is $68,076 across the contiguous United States. At $80,760, Strafford County, NH pays $12,684 more, which is 18.6% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Strafford County, NH
Among the 581 occupations with published wages in Strafford County, NH, Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors ranks number 230 by median pay, ahead of about 61% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Natural Sciences Managers at $291,000 a year, which is $210,240 more than the median for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $80,760 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $15,394 a year, which leaves $65,366, or $5,447 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $19 goes to taxes and $81 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 19.1%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $65,010. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 22% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $9,216, an effective 11.4% of gross pay, well below the 22% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $5,007 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,171. FICA totals $6,178, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in New Hampshire
There is no state income tax on wages in New Hampshire, which means Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH keep the full $65,366 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $4,038 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $337 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Strafford County, NH
IRS Statistics of Income data for Strafford County, NH show an average adjusted gross income of $92,275 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 13.1% across all filers. Filers in the $75,000 to under $100,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 9.7%, compared with the 11.4% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Strafford County, NH
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Strafford County, NH: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $65,366 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Strafford County, NH is $1,600 a month, or $19,200 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,093 a month. For Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors, a one-bedroom absorbs 29.4% of take-home pay and 23.8% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 4.3% of gross pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using New Hampshire residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $2,473 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $737, for $3,210 in total. Gasoline in New Hampshire averages $3.25 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,505.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $27,350 a year, 42% of take-home pay. That leaves $38,015 a year, or $3,168 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 47.1% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Strafford County, NH
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Strafford County, NH: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Strafford County, NH, set beside the New Hampshire and national medians.
Property taxes in Strafford County, NH
Homeowners in Strafford County, NH pay a median of $6,708 a year in real estate taxes, in line with the New Hampshire median of $6,667 and 115% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $362,800, the median tax bill is 1.85% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors median of $80,760, a tax bill of that size would equal 8.3% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Strafford County, NH
Renters in Strafford County, NH pay a median gross rent of $1,488 a month in the Census survey, in line with the New Hampshire median of $1,491. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,600 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $362,800, 10% below the New Hampshire median of $402,500. Median household income is $88,570, 11% below the New Hampshire median of $99,031, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 21.7% of that income.
Commuting in Strafford County, NH
Workers in Strafford County, NH who travel to a workplace spend an average of 26.0 minutes each way, 3% below the New Hampshire average of 26.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.3 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 16.2% of workers in Strafford County, NH work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors afford to live in Strafford County, NH?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $80,760 that ceiling is $2,019 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,600 is $419 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $30.77 an hour; the median for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors is $38.83, which is 26% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $31.43 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 11.7 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,093 a month means $1,047 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,642 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $44,657.
How fast you can save
At $3,168 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 4 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 8 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors pay in Strafford County, NH
What is the hourly wage for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH?
The median is $38.83 per hour, based on $80,760 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $29.03 at the 10th percentile to $59.09 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $80,760 becomes $65,366 a year. That is $5,447 a month, $2,514 every two weeks or $1,257 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH?
Total taxes are $15,394 a year, an effective rate of 19.1%: $9,216 federal income tax, $6,178 FICA and no New Hampshire income tax.
Is pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH above the New Hampshire average?
Yes. The local median of $80,760 is +2.6% versus the New Hampshire average of $78,746, a difference of $2,014 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors salary in Strafford County, NH?
A one-bedroom costs $1,600 a month against take-home pay of $5,447, which is 29.4% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $2,019 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Strafford County, NH?
About $3,168 a month ($38,015 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $27,350 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Strafford County, NH at the 30% guideline?
$30.77 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $19,200 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors is $38.83.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the New Hampshire rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.