Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,569
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$14,241
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,497
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
$77,810
Kept after tax
$63,569
Worth in national money
$62,497
State rank
10
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $77,810, putting the state 10 of 51 — about 30.01% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 168 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $77,810, tax leaves $63,569, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $62,497 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $82,680, since top earners drag the number up.
- For operating engineers and other construction equipment operators, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $77,810, ranking 10 of 51 and running about 30.01% 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.
- Position 168 of 430 in Alaska places operating engineers and other construction equipment operators 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 operating engineers and other construction equipment operators — median $77,810 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $63,569 retained, $62,497 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $82,680 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $62,390 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,810 |
| Top tenth earn over | $103,900 |
| This salary | $77,810 |
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 | $63,569 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,569 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,920 |
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 | $77,810 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,033 |
| 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 operating engineers and other construction equipment operators in Alaska earn under $77,810 and half over. The published range runs $62,390 at the tenth percentile to $103,900 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 $63,569, worked from $77,810. 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 168 of 430.
- Two cautions on $62,497, the adjusted value of that $77,810 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 168 of 430 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $62,390 to $103,900; 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 $63,569, on $77,810 for work ranking 168 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 168 of 430 in the state.
- This $62,497 adjusted figure, worked from $77,810, 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 168 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 168 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $82,680, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $62,390 and the top tenth $103,900, so most people doing this work in Alaska sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $62,497 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $63,569 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?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $82,680. 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 ($62,390 to $103,900) 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 $62,497 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 $63,569 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.