Occupation / job
Credit Counselors
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
$52,230 against a $50,020 all-occupation midpoint — $2,210 apart. Credit Counselors pays what the average job pays, so the decision has to be made on the work, the entry cost and the spread rather than on the wage.
At 27,770 employed, this is a mid-sized occupation. In a normal city that means several possible employers and a genuine market rate, which is the point at which knowing the numbers on this page starts to be worth money.
These roles suit people who are comfortable being the check on someone else’s numbers, and who can say so plainly when the numbers do not hold.
We carry no verified training length for Credit Counselors — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
Between $45,720 and $64,080 there is $18,360, a ratio of 1.4x. Tight distributions are predictable, and predictable cuts both ways: little risk of being badly underpaid, little prospect of doing much better.
The bottom quarter of Credit Counselors earns under $45,720, which is within $4,300 of the $50,020 typical American job. An occupation whose 25th percentile is level with the national middle has an unusually forgiving downside.
Avoid it if you would find it hard to deliver an unwelcome finding to the person who commissioned the work.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 27,770 people employed as Credit Counselors; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
The quarters are $45,720 and $64,080, a ratio of 1.4x. In a distribution this narrow, the biggest single lever on your pay in Credit Counselors is the cost of living where you do it.
In cash terms the middle half of Credit Counselors runs $45,720 to $64,080 — $18,360 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $52,230.
The 75th percentile is $64,080. Reaching it from the $52,230 midpoint is $11,850 a year; reaching it from the $45,720 that the bottom quarter of Credit Counselors earn is $18,360.
It is $6,510 from $52,230 down to $45,720 but $11,850 up to $64,080. When a range leans this far upward, the interesting question is what puts someone in the top half, because the money is disproportionately there.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $21.98 at the bottom quarter, $25.11 at the midpoint, $30.80 at the top quarter. The typical American job works out at $24.04 on the same basis.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $52,230 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
The hourly number on this page is $52,230 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Credit Counselors, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else