Highway Maintenance Workers in Alaska

A hard hat, safety glasses and tool belt beside timber house framing.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$45,641

after federal, FICA and Alaska tax

Tax takes

$8,449

15.6% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$44,872

Alaska costs more than average

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

$54,090

Kept after tax

$45,641

Worth in national money

$44,872

State rank

16

of 49 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Alaska is one of the better-paying states for highway maintenance workers. The middle earner takes $54,090, which ranks 16 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 7.62% above the national middle.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 430 occupations Alaska reports figures for, this is number 299.
  • No great distortion either way. Alaska costs about what the country costs, so from $54,090, take-home of $45,641 is worth roughly $44,872 in national money. The average comes to $59,650, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • Alaska ranks 16 of 49 states publishing a median for highway maintenance workers, at $54,090 — about 7.62% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
  • In Alaska's occupational distribution, highway maintenance workers sits at 299 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.
  • Price parity in Alaska is near the national base, so for highway maintenance workers, whose median is $54,090, the adjusted figure of $44,872 differs little from $45,641 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $59,650 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.

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Pay band: Highway Maintenance Workers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$46,060
Half earn under$54,090
Top tenth earn over$77,710
This salary$54,090

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

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Alaska$45,641
Take-home in Texas$45,641
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$2,096

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

Moving to
$0now · $54,090$51,555
$51,555in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$54,090
You could take a cut of−$2,535
Prices in Texas97 vs 102

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $54,090 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,060 and the ninetieth is $77,710 — 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 $45,641, worked from $54,090. 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 299 of 430.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $44,872, the adjusted value of that $54,090 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 299 of 430 in the state.
  • The Alaska median of $54,090 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,060 to $77,710. 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 $45,641, on $54,090 for work ranking 299 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 299 of 430 in the state.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $44,872 — the adjusted value of that $54,090 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 299 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 $59,650 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $46,060 at the bottom tenth to $77,710 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

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 $44,872 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

Less than people assume. $45,641 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.

Why is this job missing from some states?

Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.

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 $59,650. 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 ($46,060 to $77,710) 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 $44,872 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 $45,641 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.