Optometrists in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$127,673
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$42,637
25.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$125,520
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
$170,310
Kept after tax
$127,673
Worth in national money
$125,520
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for optometrists is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $170,310, putting the state 1 of 51 — about 24.71% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Alaska this is well-paid work. Of 430 occupations with published figures in the state, optometrists ranks 6 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $170,310, tax leaves $127,673, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $125,520 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $165,120.
- For optometrists, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $170,310, ranking 1 of 51 and running about 24.71% 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.
- Ranked against every occupation Alaska publishes a median for, optometrists sits 6 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 optometrists — median $170,310 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $127,673 retained, $125,520 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $165,120 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Optometrists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $98,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $170,310 |
| Top tenth earn over | $218,180 |
| This salary | $170,310 |
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 | $127,673 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $127,673 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,864 |
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 | $170,310 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,337 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $170,310 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $98,530 and the ninetieth is $218,180 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Alaska the take-home figure of $127,673, from $170,310, 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 6 of 430 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $125,520, the adjusted value of that $170,310 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 6 of 430 locally.
- The Alaska median of $170,310 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $98,530 to $218,180. 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 $127,673 from $170,310. 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 6 of 430 locally.
- This $125,520 adjusted figure, worked from $170,310, 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 6 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 6 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 $165,120 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $98,530 and the top tenth $218,180, so most people doing this work in Alaska sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $125,520 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $127,673 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 $165,120. 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 ($98,530 to $218,180) 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 $125,520 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 $127,673 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.