Curators in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,508
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$10,372
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,605
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
$63,880
Kept after tax
$53,508
Worth in national money
$52,605
State rank
14
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays curators a middle wage of $63,880, ranking 14 of 49 states and sitting about 0.73% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Curators ranks 229 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $63,880, tax leaves $53,508, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,605 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $71,620, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alaska's median for curators is $63,880, about 0.73% above the national figure and 14 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 229 of 430 in Alaska places curators 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 curators — median $63,880 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $53,508 retained, $52,605 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $71,620 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Curators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,920 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $105,870 |
| This salary | $63,880 |
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 | $53,508 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,508 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,458 |
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 | $63,880 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,972 |
| 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 curators in Alaska earn under $63,880 and half over. The published range runs $53,920 at the tenth percentile to $105,870 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $53,508 take-home in Alaska comes from $63,880. 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 229 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $52,605, the adjusted value of that $63,880 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 229 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for curators in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $53,920 to $105,870; 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 $53,508, from $63,880, 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 229 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $52,605 — the adjusted value of that $63,880 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 229 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 $71,620 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 $53,920 and the top tenth $105,870 — 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 $52,605 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $53,508 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $71,620. 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 ($53,920) and the ninetieth ($105,870) 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 $52,605 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 $53,508 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.