Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$67,586
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$15,934
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,447
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
$83,520
Kept after tax
$67,586
Worth in national money
$66,447
State rank
4
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $83,520, putting the state 4 of 50 — about 56.58% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Alaska, this sits in the middle: 129 of 430 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $83,520 the take-home is $67,586, which is worth about $66,447 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $83,530, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $83,520, ranking 4 of 50 and running about 56.58% 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.
- Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators ranks 129 of 430 occupations in Alaska by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators on its $83,520 median: $67,586 retained after tax becomes $66,447 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $83,530 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,670 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $83,520 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,260 |
| This salary | $83,520 |
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 | $67,586 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $67,586 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,104 |
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 | $83,520 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,288 |
| 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 paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators in Alaska earn under $83,520 and half over. The published range runs $60,670 at the tenth percentile to $100,260 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $67,586 take-home in Alaska comes from $83,520. 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 129 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $66,447 uses one figure for the whole of Alaska. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 430 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 129.
- Figures are distribution medians for paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $60,670 to $100,260; 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 $67,586, from $83,520, 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 129 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $66,447, worked from $83,520, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Alaska address, on work sitting at 129 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $60,670 and the top tenth $100,260, 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 $66,447 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $67,586 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.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($60,670 to $100,260) 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 $66,447 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 $67,586 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.