Massage Therapists in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$103,491
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$31,439
23.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$101,746
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
$134,930
Kept after tax
$103,491
Worth in national money
$101,746
State rank
1
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays massage therapists a middle wage of $134,930, ranking 1 of 50 states and sitting about 130.85% above the national middle.
- Within Alaska this is well-paid work. Of 430 occupations with published figures in the state, massage therapists ranks 18 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $134,930, tax leaves $103,491, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $101,746 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $121,350.
- Alaska's median for massage therapists is $134,930, about 130.85% above the national figure and 1 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Ranked against every occupation Alaska publishes a median for, massage therapists sits 18 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 massage therapists — median $134,930 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $103,491 retained, $101,746 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $121,350 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $134,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $161,400 |
| This salary | $134,930 |
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 | $103,491 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $103,491 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,754 |
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 | $134,930 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,758 |
| 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 massage therapists in Alaska earn under $134,930 and half over. The published range runs $34,140 at the tenth percentile to $161,400 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $103,491 take-home in Alaska comes from $134,930. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 18 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $101,746, the adjusted value of that $134,930 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 18 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for massage therapists in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,140 to $161,400; 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.
- Retained pay of $103,491, from $134,930, assumes a single Alaska filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 18 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 1 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $101,746 — the adjusted value of that $134,930 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 18 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 $121,350 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $34,140 at the bottom tenth to $161,400 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $101,746 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $103,491 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?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 $121,350. 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 ($34,140) and the ninetieth ($161,400) 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 $101,746 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 $103,491 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.