Chefs and Head Cooks in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,115
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$8,075
15.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,371
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
$52,190
Kept after tax
$44,115
Worth in national money
$43,371
State rank
44
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alaska pays chefs and head cooks a middle wage of $52,190, 44 of 51 states and about 16.46% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Alaska, this sits in the middle: 308 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 $52,190, take-home of $44,115 is worth roughly $43,371 in national money. The average comes to $59,430, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Alaska's $52,190 median for chefs and head cooks places it 44 of 51 states, about 16.46% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Chefs and head cooks ranks 308 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 chefs and head cooks, whose median is $52,190, the adjusted figure of $43,371 differs little from $44,115 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $59,430 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Chefs and Head Cooks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,170 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,190 |
| Top tenth earn over | $91,520 |
| This salary | $52,190 |
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 | $44,115 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,115 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,026 |
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 | $52,190 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,451 |
| 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 chefs and head cooks in Alaska earn under $52,190 and half over. The published range runs $39,170 at the tenth percentile to $91,520 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $44,115 take-home in Alaska comes from $52,190. 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 308 of 430.
- Two cautions on $43,371, the adjusted value of that $52,190 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alaska. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 308 of 430 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for chefs and head cooks in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,170 to $91,520; 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 $44,115, from $52,190, 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 308 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 44 of 51 for it.
- This $43,371 adjusted figure, worked from $52,190, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 308 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 308 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 $59,430 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 $39,170, the highest tenth $91,520, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $43,371 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $44,115 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 $59,430. 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 ($39,170) and the ninetieth ($91,520) 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 $43,371 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 $44,115 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.