Civil Engineers in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$89,543
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$25,187
22.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$88,033
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
$114,730
Kept after tax
$89,543
Worth in national money
$88,033
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays civil engineers a middle wage of $114,730, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 13.77% above the national middle.
- Within Alaska this is well-paid work. Of 430 occupations with published figures in the state, civil engineers ranks 41 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $114,730, tax leaves $89,543, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $88,033 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $118,830, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alaska's median for civil engineers is $114,730, about 13.77% above the national figure and 2 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.
- Ranked against every occupation Alaska publishes a median for, civil engineers sits 41 of 430 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for civil engineers — median $114,730 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $89,543 retained, $88,033 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $118,830 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Civil Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $78,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $114,730 |
| Top tenth earn over | $163,420 |
| This salary | $114,730 |
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 | $89,543 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $89,543 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,113 |
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 | $114,730 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,681 |
| 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 $114,730. The published range is $78,940 up to $163,420, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $89,543 take-home in Alaska comes from $114,730. 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 41 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $88,033, the adjusted value of that $114,730 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 41 of 430 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for civil engineers in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $78,940 to $163,420. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $89,543, from $114,730, 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 41 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 2 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $88,033 — the adjusted value of that $114,730 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 41 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 $118,830, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $78,940 and the top tenth $163,420 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $88,033 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $89,543 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 $118,830. 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 ($78,940) and the ninetieth ($163,420) 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 $88,033 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 $89,543 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.