School Counselor Salary & Pay DataBLS figures for educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors, the broader group, in K-12 schools
BLS OEWS May 2025 · Broader BLS occupation: SOC 21-1012 Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
BLS publishes no separate wage for school counselors.
All educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors (SOC 21-1012 Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors), the broader occupation used here, earned a median $76,760 a year ($36.91 an hour) in elementary and secondary schools, public and private together, in May 2025.
The middle half of that group earned between $61,110 and $96,690.
In privately owned elementary and secondary schools alone (BLS industry 611105, national), the median for educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors was $62,190 on 21,600 jobs.
BLS counts school counselors inside educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors (21-1012).
This is that occupation in all K-12 schools, public and private together.
In privately owned schools alone, the BLS median for this occupation was $62,190.
Annual figures are BLS hourly wages × 2,080 hours. BLS has no private school or charter school occupation code. The K-12 figures count public district, charter and private schools together; only the privately owned schools figure isolates private schools. OEWS covers wage-and-salary workers only and leaves out the self-employed, overtime pay and most bonuses.
How pay spreads across Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $49,940 | $24.01 |
| 25th | $61,110 | $29.38 |
| 50th (median) | $76,760 | $36.91 |
| 75th | $96,690 | $46.48 |
| 90th | $115,960 | $55.75 |
| Mean (average) | $79,800 | $38.37 |
SOC 21-1012 Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors, the broader occupation (not a school counselor series), in elementary and secondary schools (NAICS 611100, public and private): 173,950 wage-and-salary jobs, BLS OEWS May 2025. The privately owned schools figure is shown as a median, mean and job count only.
Pay by employer
National figures for all educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors (SOC 21-1012): every employer, then K-12 schools of every ownership, then privately owned K-12 schools only, BLS OEWS May 2025.
BLS publishes no figure for school counselors alone; these rows are for the whole occupation.
BLS publishes no split by type of private school.
Elementary and secondary schools (NAICS 611100) counts public district, charter and private schools together.
The privately owned schools row is a separate BLS industry series (611105); BLS industry estimates are national only, and this page shows that row as a median, mean and job count (no hourly figure or percentiles).
| Employer | Median | Mean | Hourly median | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries (every employer) | $64,330 | $71,430 | $30.93 | 353,310 |
| K-12 schools, public and private (NAICS 611100) | $76,760 | $79,800 | $36.91 | 173,950 |
| Privately owned K-12 schools only (BLS industry 611105) | $62,190 | $67,420 | Not shown | 21,600 |
Job outlook for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
BLS projects employment of all educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors to grow 2.9%, from about 389,500 in 2025 to 400,900 in 2035 (BLS Employment Projections 2025–35).
BLS projects no separate figure for school counselors.
The projection covers every employer, public and private, with no split for private schools.
It includes the self-employed and comes from a different BLS program, so it is not directly comparable with the OEWS job counts above.