Postal Service Mail Carriers in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,294
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$9,586
16.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,446
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
$59,880
Kept after tax
$50,294
Worth in national money
$49,446
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Alaska is 21 of 51 states for postal service mail carriers, with a middle wage of $59,880. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Postal service mail carriers ranks 262 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $59,880 the take-home is $50,294, which is worth about $49,446 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $62,380, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Alaska ranks 21 of 51 for postal service mail carriers at $59,880. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Position 262 of 430 in Alaska places postal service mail carriers 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.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for postal service mail carriers on its $59,880 median: $50,294 retained after tax becomes $49,446 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $62,380 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Postal Service Mail Carriers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,030 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,040 |
| This salary | $59,880 |
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 | $50,294 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,294 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,310 |
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 | $59,880 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,794 |
| 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 mail carriers in Alaska earn under $59,880 and half over. The published range runs $46,030 at the tenth percentile to $81,040 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $50,294 take-home in Alaska comes from $59,880. 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 262 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $49,446 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 262.
- Figures are distribution medians for postal service mail carriers in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,030 to $81,040; 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 $50,294, from $59,880, 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 262 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $49,446, worked from $59,880, 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 262 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 $62,380 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 $46,030 at the bottom tenth to $81,040 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 $49,446 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $50,294 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 $62,380. 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 ($46,030 to $81,040) 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 $49,446 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 $50,294 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.