Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,671
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$13,019
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,648
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
$73,690
Kept after tax
$60,671
Worth in national money
$59,648
State rank
3
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays drywall and ceiling tile installers a middle wage of $73,690, ranking 3 of 49 states and sitting about 25.05% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Drywall and ceiling tile installers ranks 196 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $73,690 the take-home is $60,671, which is worth about $59,648 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $68,130, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Alaska's median for drywall and ceiling tile installers is $73,690, about 25.05% above the national figure and 3 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 196 of 430 in Alaska places drywall and ceiling tile installers 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.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for drywall and ceiling tile installers on its $73,690 median: $60,671 retained after tax becomes $59,648 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $68,130 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $73,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $88,300 |
| This salary | $73,690 |
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 | $60,671 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,671 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,787 |
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 | $73,690 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,849 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $73,690 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,800 and the ninetieth is $88,300 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $60,671, worked from $73,690. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 196 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $59,648, the adjusted value of that $73,690 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 196 of 430 in the state.
- The Alaska median of $73,690 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,800 to $88,300. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Alaska take-home of $60,671, on $73,690 for work ranking 196 of 430 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 196 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $59,648 — the adjusted value of that $73,690 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 196 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 $68,130 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $46,800 and the top tenth $88,300, so most people doing this work in Alaska sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $59,648 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $60,671 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 $68,130. 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 ($46,800 to $88,300) 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 $59,648 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 $60,671 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.