Conservation Scientists in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$64,589
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$14,671
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,500
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
$79,260
Kept after tax
$64,589
Worth in national money
$63,500
State rank
10
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for conservation scientists is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $79,260, putting the state 10 of 51 — about 8.56% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Conservation scientists ranks 155 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $79,260, tax leaves $64,589, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,500 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $88,860, since top earners drag the number up.
- For conservation scientists, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $79,260, ranking 10 of 51 and running about 8.56% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 155 of 430 in Alaska places conservation scientists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for conservation scientists — median $79,260 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $64,589 retained, $63,500 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $88,860 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Conservation Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,260 |
| Top tenth earn over | $135,120 |
| This salary | $79,260 |
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 | $64,589 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,589 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,967 |
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 | $79,260 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,098 |
| 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 $79,260. The published range is $53,830 up to $135,120, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $64,589 take-home in Alaska comes from $79,260. 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 155 of 430.
- Two cautions on $63,500, the adjusted value of that $79,260 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 155 of 430 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for conservation scientists in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $53,830 to $135,120. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $64,589, from $79,260, 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 155 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 51 for it.
- This $63,500 adjusted figure, worked from $79,260, 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 155 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 155 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 $88,860 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $53,830 and the top tenth $135,120 — 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 $63,500 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $64,589 of this wage reaches your account, because Alaska takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $88,860. 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 ($53,830) and the ninetieth ($135,120) 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 $63,500 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 $64,589 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.