Education Administrators, Postsecondary in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$81,347
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$21,733
21.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$79,975
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
$103,080
Kept after tax
$81,347
Worth in national money
$79,975
State rank
30
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Alaska pays this job around $103,080 at the midpoint, 30 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Within Alaska this is well-paid work. Of 430 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 67 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $103,080, tax leaves $81,347, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $79,975 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $111,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- For education administrators, postsecondary the Alaska median is $103,080, ranking 30 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Ranked against every occupation Alaska publishes a median for, education administrators, postsecondary sits 67 of 430 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for education administrators, postsecondary — median $103,080 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $81,347 retained, $79,975 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $111,630 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Education Administrators, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $74,820 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $103,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $155,670 |
| This salary | $103,080 |
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 | $81,347 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $81,347 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,736 |
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 | $103,080 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,161 |
| 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 education administrators, postsecondary in Alaska earn under $103,080 and half over. The published range runs $74,820 at the tenth percentile to $155,670 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $81,347, worked from $103,080. 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 67 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $79,975, the adjusted value of that $103,080 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 67 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for education administrators, postsecondary in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $74,820 to $155,670; 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.
- The Alaska take-home of $81,347, on $103,080 for work ranking 67 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 67 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $79,975 — the adjusted value of that $103,080 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 67 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 $111,630, 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 $74,820 and the top tenth $155,670 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $79,975 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $81,347 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $111,630. 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 ($74,820) and the ninetieth ($155,670) 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 $79,975 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 $81,347 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.