Animal Trainers in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,222
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$4,678
13.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,713
Alaska costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the bottom tenth percentile for this work in Alaska — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$34,900
Kept after tax
$30,222
Worth in national money
$29,713
State rank
36
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for animal trainers is on the low side in Alaska. The middle earner gets $34,900. That is 36 of 47 states, and about 12.73% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 430 occupations Alaska publishes, animal trainers lands at 418. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $34,900, tax leaves $30,222, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $29,713 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $36,380, since top earners drag the number up.
- For animal trainers, Alaska sits in the lower band at $34,900, ranking 36 of 47 and trailing the national median by about 12.73%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Alaska, this work ranks 418 of 430 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for animal trainers — median $34,900 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $30,222 retained, $29,713 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $36,380 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Animal Trainers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $43,870 |
| This salary | $34,900 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Alaska | $30,222 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,222 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,388 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $34,900 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,679 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of animal trainers in Alaska earn under $34,900 and half over. The published range runs $34,900 at the tenth percentile to $43,870 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $30,222, worked from $34,900. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 418 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $29,713, the adjusted value of that $34,900 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 418 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for animal trainers in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,900 to $43,870; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Alaska take-home of $30,222, on $34,900 for work ranking 418 of 430 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 418 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $29,713 — the adjusted value of that $34,900 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 418 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $36,380 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $34,900 and the top tenth $43,870, so most people doing this work in Alaska sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $29,713 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $30,222 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 47 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Alaska is $36,380. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,900 to $43,870) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alaska rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Alaska's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,713 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Alaska levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $30,222 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.