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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors Salary: Valdosta, GA vs Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA

Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors earn a median of $48,930 in Valdosta, GA and $102,130 in Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA. That is a nominal gap of $53,200 (-52.1%), with Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 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.

$48,930
Valdosta, GA median
$55,432 after COL
$102,130
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA median
$92,397 after COL
-52.1%
Nominal gap
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA leads
-40.0%
Adjusted gap
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA pays $53,200 more per year than Valdosta, GA for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, a gap of +52.1%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $36,965 of extra purchasing power (+40.0% 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

Valdosta, GA

Median salary
$48,930
Mean salary
$59,800
Employment
130
Location quotient
1.04
Jobs per 1,000
2.3
COL-adjusted median
$55,432
Regional Price Parity
88.3%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors page for Valdosta, GA →

Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors

Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA

Median salary
$102,130
Mean salary
$105,680
Employment
730
Location quotient
1.02
Jobs per 1,000
2.3
COL-adjusted median
$92,397
Regional Price Parity
110.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Educational, Guidance, And Career Counselors And Advisors page for Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA →

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 metro specializes in.