Tour and Travel Guides Salary

It’s a stretch — at the median salary of $31K, rent takes 64.5% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,356/month. The 30% guideline puts the comfortable ceiling at roughly $600/month in rent — so roommates or a 1-bedroom would ease the math significantly.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new tour and travel guides typically earn — is $23K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $1,357/month.

Local pay runs 20% below the national median — $31K here vs. $38K nationally.

Eastern North Carolina nonmetropolitan area pays $31K median vs. the U.S. average of $38K — that’s -20%.

The median is $30,560 a year, that works out to about $15 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $22,610, and experienced tour and travel guides can clear $41,210. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $2,102/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,356/month, which eats 64.5% of your paycheck. That's above the 30% rule of thumb, housing will be a stretch at the median salary, though you can manage with roommates or a smaller place.

Eastern North Carolina nonmetropolitan area has a Regional Price Parity of 100 (100 is the national average). That's right at the national average. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median tour and travel guides salary is worth about $30,560 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.