Interior Designers in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,058
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$10,262
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,163
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
$63,320
Kept after tax
$53,058
Worth in national money
$52,163
State rank
26
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Alaska pays interior designers around $63,320 at the midpoint, 26 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Interior designers ranks 232 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $63,320, tax leaves $53,058, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,163 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $73,320, since top earners drag the number up.
- For interior designers the Alaska median is $63,320, ranking 26 of 49 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.
- Position 232 of 430 in Alaska places interior designers 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.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for interior designers — median $63,320 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $53,058 retained, $52,163 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $73,320 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Interior Designers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,980 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $114,740 |
| This salary | $63,320 |
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 | $53,058 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,058 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,437 |
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 | $63,320 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,947 |
| 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 interior designers in Alaska earn under $63,320 and half over. The published range runs $44,980 at the tenth percentile to $114,740 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 $53,058, worked from $63,320. 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 232 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,163 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 232.
- Figures are distribution medians for interior designers in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $44,980 to $114,740; 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 $53,058, on $63,320 for work ranking 232 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 232 of 430 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,163, worked from $63,320, 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 232 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 $73,320, 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 $44,980 and the top tenth $114,740 — 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 $52,163 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $53,058 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 $73,320. 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 ($44,980) and the ninetieth ($114,740) 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 $52,163 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 $53,058 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.