Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,169
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$6,621
14.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,525
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
$44,790
Kept after tax
$38,169
Worth in national money
$37,525
State rank
24
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alaska sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $44,790, ranking 24 of 47 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Alaska, this one sits low: 370 of 430 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $44,790, tax leaves $38,169, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $37,525 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,500, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alaska occupies the middle band for broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys: a median of $44,790, ranking 24 of 47. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys occupies position 370 of 430 in Alaska's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys — median $44,790 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $38,169 retained, $37,525 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,500 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,040 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,790 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,080 |
| This salary | $44,790 |
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 | $38,169 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,169 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,753 |
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 | $44,790 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,120 |
| 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 broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys in Alaska earn under $44,790 and half over. The published range runs $34,040 at the tenth percentile to $78,080 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 $38,169, worked from $44,790. 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 370 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,525, the adjusted value of that $44,790 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 370 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,040 to $78,080; 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 $38,169, on $44,790 for work ranking 370 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 370 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $37,525 — the adjusted value of that $44,790 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 370 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 $51,500 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $34,040, the highest tenth $78,080, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Alaska costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $37,525 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $38,169 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 $51,500. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($34,040) and the ninetieth ($78,080) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
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 $37,525 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 $38,169 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.