Postal Service Clerks in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,638
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$9,182
15.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,818
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
$57,820
Kept after tax
$48,638
Worth in national money
$47,818
State rank
50
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alaska pays postal service clerks a middle wage of $57,820, 50 of 51 states and about 6.94% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 430 occupations Alaska reports figures for, this is number 269.
- No great distortion either way. Alaska costs about what the country costs, so from $57,820, take-home of $48,638 is worth roughly $47,818 in national money. The average lands at $53,970, below the middle of the range.
- Alaska's $57,820 median for postal service clerks places it 50 of 51 states, about 6.94% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- In Alaska's occupational distribution, postal service clerks sits at 269 of 430 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Price parity in Alaska is near the national base, so for postal service clerks, whose median is $57,820, the adjusted figure of $47,818 differs little from $48,638 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $53,970 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Postal Service Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,320 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,820 |
| Top tenth earn over | $71,930 |
| This salary | $57,820 |
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 | $48,638 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,638 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,234 |
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 | $57,820 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,702 |
| 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 postal service clerks in Alaska earn under $57,820 and half over. The published range runs $36,320 at the tenth percentile to $71,930 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 $48,638, worked from $57,820. 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 269 of 430.
- Two cautions on $47,818, the adjusted value of that $57,820 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 269 of 430 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for postal service clerks in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,320 to $71,930; 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 $48,638, on $57,820 for work ranking 269 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 269 of 430 in the state.
- This $47,818 adjusted figure, worked from $57,820, 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 269 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 269 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 $53,970, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $36,320 at the bottom tenth to $71,930 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 $47,818 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $48,638 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 $53,970. 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 ($36,320 to $71,930) 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 $47,818 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 $48,638 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.