Commercial Pilots in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$79,264
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$20,856
20.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$77,928
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
$100,120
Kept after tax
$79,264
Worth in national money
$77,928
State rank
41
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for commercial pilots is on the low side in Alaska. The middle earner gets $100,120. That is 41 of 48 states, and about 18.75% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 430 occupations Alaska reports, commercial pilots comes in at 77 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $100,120, tax leaves $79,264, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $77,928 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $107,070, since top earners drag the number up.
- For commercial pilots, Alaska sits in the lower band at $100,120, ranking 41 of 48 and trailing the national median by about 18.75%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Commercial pilots ranks 77 of 430 occupations by median in Alaska, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for commercial pilots — median $100,120 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $79,264 retained, $77,928 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $107,070 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Commercial Pilots
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,610 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $100,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $163,410 |
| This salary | $100,120 |
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 | $79,264 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,264 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,641 |
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 | $100,120 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,029 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $100,120 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,610 and the ninetieth is $163,410 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $79,264 take-home in Alaska comes from $100,120. 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 77 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $77,928 uses one figure for the whole of Alaska. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 430 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 77.
- The Alaska median of $100,120 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,610 to $163,410. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $79,264, from $100,120, 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 77 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 48 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $77,928, worked from $100,120, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Alaska address, on work sitting at 77 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 $107,070, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $49,610 at the bottom tenth to $163,410 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $77,928 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $79,264 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?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $107,070. 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 ($49,610) and the ninetieth ($163,410) 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 $77,928 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 $79,264 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.