Healthcare Social Workers in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,997
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$10,003
16.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,120
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
$62,000
Kept after tax
$51,997
Worth in national money
$51,120
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alaska pays healthcare social workers a middle wage of $62,000, 40 of 51 states and about 8.66% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 430 occupations Alaska reports figures for, this is number 243.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $62,000 the take-home is $51,997, which is worth about $51,120 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $68,370, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Alaska's $62,000 median for healthcare social workers places it 40 of 51 states, about 8.66% 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.
- In Alaska's occupational distribution, healthcare social workers sits at 243 of 430 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for healthcare social workers on its $62,000 median: $51,997 retained after tax becomes $51,120 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $68,370 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Healthcare Social Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,000 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $97,810 |
| This salary | $62,000 |
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 | $51,997 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,997 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,388 |
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 | $62,000 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,888 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $62,000 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,000 and the ninetieth is $97,810 — 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 $51,997, worked from $62,000. 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 243 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $51,120 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 243.
- The Alaska median of $62,000 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,000 to $97,810. 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 $51,997, on $62,000 for work ranking 243 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 243 of 430 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $51,120, worked from $62,000, 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 243 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 $68,370, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $47,000, the highest tenth $97,810, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $51,120 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $51,997 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 $68,370. 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 ($47,000) and the ninetieth ($97,810) 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 $51,120 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 $51,997 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.