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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors Salary: Hawaii vs Massachusetts

Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors earn a median of $66,720 in Hawaii and $78,840 in Massachusetts. That is a nominal gap of $12,120 (-15.4%), with Massachusetts paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2024 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.

$66,720
Hawaii median
$60,682 after COL
$78,840
Massachusetts median
$74,548 after COL
-15.4%
Nominal gap
Massachusetts leads
-18.6%
Adjusted gap
Massachusetts leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Massachusetts pays $12,120 more per year than Hawaii for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, a gap of +15.4%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Massachusetts still comes out ahead, with roughly $13,867 of extra purchasing power (+18.6% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors

Hawaii

Median salary
$66,720
Mean salary
$71,590
Employment
1,800
Location quotient
1.30
Jobs per 1,000
2.9
COL-adjusted median
$60,682
Regional Price Parity
110.0%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors page for Hawaii →

Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors

Massachusetts

Median salary
$78,840
Mean salary
$82,910
Employment
11,850
Location quotient
1.46
Jobs per 1,000
3.3
COL-adjusted median
$74,548
Regional Price Parity
105.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors page for Massachusetts →

Related pages

Keep digging into educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors from a different angle.

Common questions about this comparison

What does the cost-of-living adjustment actually do? +

It divides each location's nominal median wage by its Regional Price Parity (RPP), which measures how local prices compare to the national average (100 = national). A wage of $100,000 in an area with RPP 120 has the same purchasing power as roughly $83,000 nationally.

Why would the nominal and adjusted winners disagree? +

High-cost metros often pay higher salaries, but not by enough to fully offset the higher cost of housing, goods, and services. When that happens, the location with the lower nominal wage actually offers more real purchasing power.

What is a location quotient? +

The location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a given area versus the national average. A value of 2.0 means the occupation is twice as common there as nationally. It is a signal of what a state specializes in.