Art Directors in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,733
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$13,467
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,692
Alaska costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th 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
$75,200
Kept after tax
$61,733
Worth in national money
$60,692
State rank
37
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for art directors is on the low side in Alaska. The middle earner gets $75,200. That is 37 of 46 states, and about 34.52% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Art directors ranks 191 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $75,200, tax leaves $61,733, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $60,692 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $79,370, since top earners drag the number up.
- For art directors, Alaska sits in the lower band at $75,200, ranking 37 of 46 and trailing the national median by about 34.52%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 191 of 430 in Alaska places art directors in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for art directors — median $75,200 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $61,733 retained, $60,692 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $79,370 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,260 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,200 |
| Top tenth earn over | $104,990 |
| This salary | $75,200 |
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 | $61,733 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,733 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,836 |
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 | $75,200 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,917 |
| 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 art directors in Alaska earn under $75,200 and half over. The published range runs $60,260 at the tenth percentile to $104,990 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $61,733 take-home in Alaska comes from $75,200. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 191 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $60,692, the adjusted value of that $75,200 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 191 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for art directors in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $60,260 to $104,990; 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.
- Retained pay of $61,733, from $75,200, assumes a single Alaska filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 191 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 46 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $60,692 — the adjusted value of that $75,200 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 191 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $79,370, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $60,260 at the tenth percentile, $104,990 at the ninetieth.
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 $60,692 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $61,733 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 46 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $79,370. 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 ($60,260 to $104,990) 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 $60,692 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 $61,733 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.