Carpenters in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,791
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$13,069
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,766
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
$73,860
Kept after tax
$60,791
Worth in national money
$59,766
State rank
6
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays carpenters a middle wage of $73,860, ranking 6 of 51 states and sitting about 21.92% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Alaska, this sits in the middle: 195 of 430 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Alaska costs about what the country costs, so from $73,860, take-home of $60,791 is worth roughly $59,766 in national money. The average comes to $80,460, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Alaska's median for carpenters is $73,860, about 21.92% above the national figure and 6 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Carpenters ranks 195 of 430 occupations in Alaska by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Alaska is near the national base, so for carpenters, whose median is $73,860, the adjusted figure of $59,766 differs little from $60,791 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $80,460 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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: Carpenters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,060 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $73,860 |
| Top tenth earn over | $151,530 |
| This salary | $73,860 |
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 | $60,791 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,791 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,792 |
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 | $73,860 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,857 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Alaska earn less than $73,860. The published range is $49,060 up to $151,530, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $60,791, worked from $73,860. 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 195 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $59,766, the adjusted value of that $73,860 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 195 of 430 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for carpenters in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,060 to $151,530. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Alaska take-home of $60,791, on $73,860 for work ranking 195 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 195 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $59,766 — the adjusted value of that $73,860 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 195 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $80,460, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $49,060 and the top tenth $151,530 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Alaska run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $59,766 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $60,791 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $80,460. 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 ($49,060) and the ninetieth ($151,530) 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 $59,766 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 $60,791 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.