Detectives and Criminal Investigators in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$89,690
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$25,250
22.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$88,178
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
$114,940
Kept after tax
$89,690
Worth in national money
$88,178
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays this job a middle wage of $114,940, ranking 7 of 51 states and sitting about 22.55% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Alaska. It ranks 40 out of 430 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $114,940 the take-home is $89,690, which is worth about $88,178 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $125,160, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Alaska's median for detectives and criminal investigators is $114,940, about 22.55% above the national figure and 7 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Alaska, detectives and criminal investigators ranks 40 of 430 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for detectives and criminal investigators on its $114,940 median: $89,690 retained after tax becomes $88,178 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $125,160 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Detectives and Criminal Investigators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $79,680 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $114,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $183,680 |
| This salary | $114,940 |
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 | $89,690 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $89,690 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,120 |
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 | $114,940 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,691 |
| 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 detectives and criminal investigators in Alaska earn under $114,940 and half over. The published range runs $79,680 at the tenth percentile to $183,680 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Alaska the take-home figure of $89,690, from $114,940, 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 40 of 430 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $88,178, the adjusted value of that $114,940 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 40 of 430 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for detectives and criminal investigators in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $79,680 to $183,680; 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.
- Take-home for Alaska is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $89,690 from $114,940. 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 40 of 430 locally.
- This $88,178 adjusted figure, worked from $114,940, 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 40 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 40 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 $125,160, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $79,680 and the top tenth $183,680 — 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 $88,178 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $89,690 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 $125,160. 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 ($79,680) and the ninetieth ($183,680) 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 $88,178 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 $89,690 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.