Cooks, Short Order in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,536
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$5,244
13.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,988
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
$37,780
Kept after tax
$32,536
Worth in national money
$31,988
State rank
17
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alaska sits in the middle of the pack for cooks, short order. The median is $37,780, ranking 17 of 49 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Alaska, this one sits low: 400 of 430 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $37,780 the take-home is $32,536, which is worth about $31,988 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $40,570, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Alaska occupies the middle band for cooks, short order: a median of $37,780, ranking 17 of 49. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Cooks, short order occupies position 400 of 430 in Alaska's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for cooks, short order on its $37,780 median: $32,536 retained after tax becomes $31,988 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $40,570 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,600 |
| This salary | $37,780 |
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 | $32,536 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,536 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,494 |
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 | $37,780 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,807 |
| 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 cooks, short order in Alaska earn under $37,780 and half over. The published range runs $34,830 at the tenth percentile to $47,600 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $32,536 take-home in Alaska comes from $37,780. 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 400 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $31,988 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 400.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, short order in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,830 to $47,600; 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 $32,536, from $37,780, 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 400 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 17 of 49 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $31,988, worked from $37,780, 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 400 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 $40,570 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $34,830 at the tenth percentile, $47,600 at the ninetieth.
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 $31,988 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $32,536 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $40,570. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,830 to $47,600) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alaska rather than a national figure.
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 $31,988 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 $32,536 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.