Dental Assistants in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,550
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$9,160
15.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,731
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
$57,710
Kept after tax
$48,550
Worth in national money
$47,731
State rank
9
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays dental assistants a middle wage of $57,710, ranking 9 of 50 states and sitting about 20.05% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Alaska, this sits in the middle: 271 of 430 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $57,710 the take-home is $48,550, which is worth about $47,731 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $55,220, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Alaska's median for dental assistants is $57,710, about 20.05% above the national figure and 9 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Dental assistants ranks 271 of 430 occupations in Alaska by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for dental assistants on its $57,710 median: $48,550 retained after tax becomes $47,731 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $55,220 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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Pay band: Dental Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,300 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,780 |
| This salary | $57,710 |
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 | $48,550 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,550 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,230 |
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 | $57,710 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,697 |
| 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 $57,710. The published range is $40,300 up to $62,780, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Alaska the take-home figure of $48,550, from $57,710, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 271 of 430 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $47,731, the adjusted value of that $57,710 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 271 of 430 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for dental assistants in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $40,300 to $62,780. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Alaska is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $48,550 from $57,710. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 271 of 430 locally.
- This $47,731 adjusted figure, worked from $57,710, 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 271 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 271 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $55,220, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $40,300 at the tenth percentile, $62,780 at the ninetieth.
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 $47,731 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $48,550 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. 50 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 $55,220. 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 ($40,300 to $62,780) 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 $47,731 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 $48,550 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.