Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$57,160
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$11,540
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,197
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
$68,700
Kept after tax
$57,160
Worth in national money
$56,197
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $68,700, putting the state 8 of 51 — about 9.24% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 216 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- No great distortion either way. Alaska costs about what the country costs, so from $68,700, take-home of $57,160 is worth roughly $56,197 in national money. The average comes to $73,440, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For paralegals and legal assistants, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $68,700, ranking 8 of 51 and running about 9.24% 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 216 of 430 in Alaska places paralegals and legal assistants 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.
- Price parity in Alaska is near the national base, so for paralegals and legal assistants, whose median is $68,700, the adjusted figure of $56,197 differs little from $57,160 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $73,440 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Paralegals and Legal Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $68,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,320 |
| This salary | $68,700 |
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 | $57,160 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $57,160 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,626 |
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 | $68,700 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,449 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Alaska earn less than $68,700. The published range is $53,830 up to $99,320, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $57,160, worked from $68,700. 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 216 of 430.
- Two cautions on $56,197, the adjusted value of that $68,700 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 216 of 430 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for paralegals and legal assistants in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $53,830 to $99,320. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Alaska take-home of $57,160, on $68,700 for work ranking 216 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 216 of 430 in the state.
- This $56,197 adjusted figure, worked from $68,700, 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 216 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 216 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 $73,440 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $53,830 at the bottom tenth to $99,320 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Alaska costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $56,197 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $57,160 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 $73,440. 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 ($53,830 to $99,320) 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 $56,197 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 $57,160 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.