What Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors earn in Arlington County, VA
According to the latest federal wage data for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, the median pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arlington County, VA is $77,420 a year, or $37.22 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $59,364 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Arlington County, VA.
The mean wage is $82,980, which is 7.2% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,260 people working in this occupation across the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Arlington County, VA has roughly 236,254 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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $50,890 a year ($24.47 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $122,140 or more ($58.72 an hour). That is a gap of $71,250 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $62,410 at the 25th percentile and $101,290 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.4 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 Arlington County, VA is $37.22. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $77,420, and the same salary is $6,452 a month before taxes or about $2,978 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $28.54 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 Arlington County, VA median of $77,420 is 20.3% above it.
How pay in Arlington County, VA compares
Compared with the Virginia average
Arlington County, VA pays above the state benchmark. The Virginia employment-weighted average for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors is $71,732; the local median of $77,420 beats it by $5,688, or 7.9%. Within Virginia, Arlington County, VA 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 $77,420, Arlington County, VA pays $9,344 more, which is 13.7% 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 Arlington County, VA
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Arlington County, VA, Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors ranks number 269 by median pay, ahead of about 57% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $195,190 a year, which is $117,770 more than the median for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $77,420 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 $18,056 a year, which leaves $59,364, or $4,947 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $23 goes to taxes and $77 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 23.3%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $61,670. 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 $8,481, an effective 11.0% 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 $4,800 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,123. FICA totals $5,923, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Virginia
Virginia income tax on this salary is $3,652 a year, or 4.7% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 43% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $304 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Arlington County, VA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Arlington County, VA show an average adjusted gross income of $159,169 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 19.4% across all filers. Filers in the $75,000 to under $100,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 11.9%, compared with the 11.0% 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 Arlington County, VA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Arlington County, VA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $59,364 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Arlington County, VA is $2,204 a month, or $26,448 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,438 a month. For Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors, a one-bedroom absorbs 44.5% of take-home pay and 34.2% 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 4.4% of gross pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arlington County, VA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Virginia residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,523 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $597, for $2,119 in total. Gasoline in Virginia averages $3.09 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,429.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $33,432 a year, 56% of take-home pay. That leaves $25,932 a year, or $2,161 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 33.5% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Arlington County, VA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Arlington County, VA: 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 Arlington County, VA, set beside the Virginia and national medians.
Property taxes in Arlington County, VA
Homeowners in Arlington County, VA pay a median of $8,153 a year in real estate taxes, 192% above the Virginia median of $2,790 and 161% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $895,000, the median tax bill is 0.91% 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 $77,420, a tax bill of that size would equal 10.5% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Arlington County, VA
Renters in Arlington County, VA pay a median gross rent of $2,322 a month in the Census survey, 47% above the Virginia median of $1,579. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,204 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 $895,000, 133% above the Virginia median of $383,700. Median household income is $142,114, 53% above the Virginia median of $93,170, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 18.6% of that income.
Commuting in Arlington County, VA
Workers in Arlington County, VA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 26.2 minutes each way, 4% below the Virginia average of 27.3. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.4 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 35.3% of workers in Arlington County, VA 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 Arlington County, VA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $77,420 that ceiling is $1,936 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,204 is $269 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $42.38 an hour; the median for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors is $37.22, which is 12% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $28.54 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 17.8 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,438 a month means $1,219 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $11,820 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $37,752.
How fast you can save
At $2,161 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 5 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 10 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 Arlington County, VA
What is the hourly wage for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arlington County, VA?
The median is $37.22 per hour, based on $77,420 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $24.47 at the 10th percentile to $58.72 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arlington County, VA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $77,420 becomes $59,364 a year. That is $4,947 a month, $2,283 every two weeks or $1,142 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arlington County, VA?
Total taxes are $18,056 a year, an effective rate of 23.3%: $8,481 federal income tax, $5,923 FICA and $3,652 Virginia income tax.
Is pay for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arlington County, VA above the Virginia average?
Yes. The local median of $77,420 is +7.9% versus the Virginia average of $71,732, a difference of $5,688 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors salary in Arlington County, VA?
A one-bedroom costs $2,204 a month against take-home pay of $4,947, which is 44.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,936 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors in Arlington County, VA?
About $2,161 a month ($25,932 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $33,432 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Arlington County, VA at the 30% guideline?
$42.38 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $26,448 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors is $37.22.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 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 Virginia 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.