Tour and Travel Guides Salary and Pay

The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)

The five rows are five different workers in the same occupation, from the 10th percentile ($26,890) to the 90th ($59,930). BLS suppresses cells that fail its reliability rules (n/p here) and caps the highest wages at $239,200+ a year or $115.00+ an hour; in this ladder that top code appears at the very top rows only.

Employment and concentration

BLS counted 49,010 Tour and Travel Guides jobs in May 2024, which is 0.03% of all U.S. employment in the survey. Work is most concentrated in Alaska, where the location quotient is 16.13, meaning the occupation holds 16.13 times its national share of local jobs. California employs the most people outright, 6,940 of them, and the three largest state employers together account for 25.3% of the national total.

Pay inside the occupation is wide: $33,040 separates the ends of its ladder. The 90th percentile ($59,930) is 2.2 times the 10th percentile ($26,890), a gap of $33,040 a year. The mean of $43,090 sitting above the median of $36,660 tells you the top end pulls the average up: most workers cluster below the mean, and the high tail is thin.

Pay by state

The state spread for Tour and Travel Guides runs from the $53,420 median in Vermont down through every other publishing state. Employment concentrates in California (6,940 jobs). The complete table:

The occupation in context

Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Tour and Travel Guides stands number 392 by employment and number 767 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Personal Care and Service Occupations, the group median wage is $37,320 across 32 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 2% less than its group median, and it supplies 1.6% of the group's 3,159,920 jobs. In 15 of the 50 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $36,660, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.

Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA is the largest metro employer with 2,210 jobs, 4.5% of the national total. Employment rank and pay rank are different lists: the second table re-sorts metros with at least 500 jobs in this occupation by mean pay, the floor keeping a handful of workers from posing as a market.

Largest metro employers

Highest-paying metros (500+ jobs)

At the other end, St. Louis, MO-IL posts the lowest mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs, $33,800 a year, against $58,570 in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA. That is the metro effect in one line: identical job title, materially different pay, decided mostly by which labor market the job sits in.

What the median pay looks like as a budget

The median annual wage of $36,660 works out to $3,055 a month before taxes, $1,410 per biweekly paycheck, and $705 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($31,250) to the 75th ($45,910) is worth $14,660 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Run the median through the paycheck calculator for a take-home estimate in your state, compare an offer against your current pay with the salary calculator, and check whether a raise actually beats prices with the raise vs inflation calculator.

To place a real offer: a salary of $40,326 would sit between the median ($36,660) and the 75th percentile ($45,910), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $31,250, is $5,410 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.

Related occupations in Personal Care and Service Occupations

Compare the ladder above with the closest relatives in the survey: Manicurists and Pedicurists, Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers, First-Line Supervisors of Personal Service Workers, First-Line Supervisors of Entertainment and Recreation Workers, Except Gambling Services, Gambling Dealers, Residential Advisors. The Careers hub carries the whole branch, group by group.