Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$23,877
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$3,163
11.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$23,475
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
$27,040
Kept after tax
$23,877
Worth in national money
$23,475
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alaska pays this job a middle wage of $27,040, 40 of 51 states and about 20.42% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Alaska this is lower-paid work. Of 430 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 429. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- No great distortion either way. Alaska costs about what the country costs, so from $27,040, take-home of $23,877 is worth roughly $23,475 in national money. The average comes to $29,520, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Alaska's $27,040 median for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers places it 40 of 51 states, about 20.42% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Alaska reports, dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers ranks 429 of 430, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Price parity in Alaska is near the national base, so for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers, whose median is $27,040, the adjusted figure of $23,475 differs little from $23,877 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $29,520 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $24,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $27,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $35,640 |
| This salary | $27,040 |
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 | $23,877 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $23,877 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,097 |
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 | $27,040 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,294 |
| 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 $27,040. The published range is $24,770 up to $35,640, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $23,877 take-home in Alaska comes from $27,040. 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 429 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $23,475 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 429.
- Reported values are medians; for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $24,770 to $35,640. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $23,877, from $27,040, 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 429 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 40 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $23,475, worked from $27,040, 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 429 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 $29,520, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $24,770 at the bottom tenth to $35,640 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Alaska costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $23,475 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $23,877 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?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $29,520. 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 ($24,770 to $35,640) 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 $23,475 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 $23,877 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.