Nursing Assistants in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,438
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$6,932
14.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,773
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
$46,370
Kept after tax
$39,438
Worth in national money
$38,773
State rank
14
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for nursing assistants is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $46,370, putting the state 14 of 51 — about 9.73% ahead of the national figure.
- Measured against other jobs in Alaska, this one sits low: 354 of 430 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $46,370 the take-home is $39,438, which is worth about $38,773 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $48,920, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For nursing assistants, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $46,370, ranking 14 of 51 and running about 9.73% 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.
- Nursing assistants occupies position 354 of 430 in Alaska's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for nursing assistants on its $46,370 median: $39,438 retained after tax becomes $38,773 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $48,920 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Nursing Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,370 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,430 |
| This salary | $46,370 |
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 | $39,438 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,438 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,811 |
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 | $46,370 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,191 |
| 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 nursing assistants in Alaska earn under $46,370 and half over. The published range runs $39,450 at the tenth percentile to $58,430 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 $39,438, worked from $46,370. 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 354 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,773, the adjusted value of that $46,370 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 354 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for nursing assistants in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,450 to $58,430; 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 $39,438, on $46,370 for work ranking 354 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 354 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $38,773 — the adjusted value of that $46,370 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 354 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 $48,920, 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 $39,450 at the bottom tenth to $58,430 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $38,773 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $39,438 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?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $48,920. 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 ($39,450 to $58,430) 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 $38,773 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 $39,438 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.