Librarians and Media Collections Specialists in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$64,273
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$14,537
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,189
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
$78,810
Kept after tax
$64,273
Worth in national money
$63,189
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $78,810, putting the state 7 of 51 — about 15.44% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 430 occupations Alaska reports figures for, this is number 161.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $78,810, tax leaves $64,273, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,189 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $76,430.
- For librarians and media collections specialists, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $78,810, ranking 7 of 51 and running about 15.44% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- In Alaska's occupational distribution, librarians and media collections specialists sits at 161 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.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for librarians and media collections specialists — median $78,810 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $64,273 retained, $63,189 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $76,430 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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: Librarians and Media Collections Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,810 |
| Top tenth earn over | $98,530 |
| This salary | $78,810 |
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 | $64,273 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,273 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,952 |
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 | $78,810 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,078 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $78,810 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,760 and the ninetieth is $98,530 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Alaska the take-home figure of $64,273, from $78,810, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 161 of 430 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $63,189, the adjusted value of that $78,810 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alaska. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 161 of 430 locally.
- The Alaska median of $78,810 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,760 to $98,530. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Alaska is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $64,273 from $78,810. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 161 of 430 locally.
- This $63,189 adjusted figure, worked from $78,810, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 161 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 161 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 $76,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $48,760 at the bottom tenth to $98,530 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 $63,189 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $64,273 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 $76,430. 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 ($48,760 to $98,530) 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 $63,189 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 $64,273 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.