Tour and Travel Guides salary

SOC 39-7010 · BLS OEWS May 2025

Median

$38,120

per year, nationally

Middle half

$32,910–$47,700

25th to 75th percentile

Employed

53,500

in the U.S.

Growth 2024–34

+8.1%

13,000 openings/yr

What the range looks like

A single median hides most of what a job pays. The bar below is the full national range: the wash spans the 10th to 90th percentile, the solid bar is the middle half, and the tick is the median.

$28,520$60,930

10th: $28,520
25th: $32,910
Median: $38,120
75th: $47,700
90th: $60,930

Getting in

Typical education to enter: High school diploma or equivalent
Related work experience: None
On-the-job training: Moderate-term on-the-job training

Entry requirements describe what is typical, not mandatory. Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34.

Where tour and travel guides earn the most

Nominal pay and pay adjusted for local prices rank states differently — a high-wage state with high costs can be worse off in real terms than a middling one. Switch between the two below.

The median wage as published, before local prices are taken into account.

#	State	Median	Cost of living	Employed	Concentrationvs. national
1	Washington	$54,160	107.0	1,420	1.16×
2	District of Columbia	$49,210	109.9	380	1.59×
3	Wyoming	$47,020	92.7	560	5.80×
4	California	$46,000	110.7	6,900	1.10×
5	Hawaii	$45,940	110.0	1,370	6.35×
6	Vermont	$45,920	98.0	140	1.34×
7	Maine	$44,940	97.0	270	1.25×
8	New York	$44,450	107.9	2,870	0.86×
9	Alaska	$44,210	102.4	1,660	14.79×
10	Kansas	$43,700	90.1	400	0.81×
11	Colorado	$42,840	103.1	2,150	2.17×
12	New Hampshire	$41,600	104.2	260	1.09×
13	Florida	$41,600	103.4	2,720	0.80×
14	Maryland	$40,310	105.0	510	0.54×
15	Georgia	$40,190	96.3	1,080	0.64×
16	Montana	$40,100	94.6	680	3.88×
17	Minnesota	$39,650	98.6	630	0.63×
18	Nevada	$39,360	100.0	620	1.16×
19	Oregon	$39,260	103.4	530	0.78×
20	Utah	$38,540	98.9	1,630	2.73×
21	Rhode Island	$38,310	102.3	210	1.21×
22	Idaho	$37,960	95.5	460	1.56×
23	Massachusetts	$37,840	105.8	1,760	1.41×
24	Arizona	$37,560	100.7	2,450	2.20×
25	New Mexico	$37,080	92.2	360	1.21×
26	Illinois	$36,780	100.0	1,090	0.52×
27	New Jersey	$36,640	108.8	390	0.26×
28	Kentucky	$36,070	90.2	1,010	1.47×
29	North Dakota	$35,360	89.0	90	0.63×
30	South Carolina	$35,190	93.7	660	0.83×
31	South Dakota	$35,100	88.6	440	2.81×
32	Michigan	$35,090	96.2	1,160	0.76×
33	Connecticut	$35,090	103.6	220	0.38×
34	Arkansas	$34,290	86.9	160	0.37×
35	Tennessee	$33,760	91.9	1,840	1.63×
36	Delaware	$33,210	99.8	330	1.96×
37	Texas	$33,080	97.1	2,250	0.47×
38	Pennsylvania	$32,910	97.6	1,970	0.94×
39	Ohio	$32,800	92.8	1,000	0.52×
40	North Carolina	$32,570	94.3	1,650	0.97×
41	Oklahoma	$32,150	87.8	350	0.60×
42	Louisiana	$32,060	88.2	580	0.88×
43	Missouri	$31,980	90.8	1,360	1.35×
44	Alabama	$31,700	88.8	410	0.56×
45	Nebraska	$31,580	90.1	340	0.97×
46	Indiana	$31,030	93.3	700	0.64×
47	Wisconsin	$30,160	94.1	910	0.90×
48	West Virginia	$28,570	89.5	270	1.11×
49	Mississippi	$27,460	87.0	150	0.38×
50	Iowa	$22,490	87.8	330	0.61×

Cost of living is the BEA regional price parity for all items, where 100 is the national average. Concentration is the BLS location quotient: how much more of the local workforce does this job than the national average, so 2.00× means twice the national share. It is often the reason wages differ — a place that concentrates an occupation has the employers and the competition for it. States where tour and travel guides wages are suppressed by BLS for confidentiality are omitted.

Best paying metro areas for tour and travel guides

The 40 highest-paying metros with a published estimate. BLS suppresses roughly half of all occupation-by-metro cells, so a metro absent here has no local figure rather than a low one.