Postmasters and Mail Superintendents in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,860
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$9,480
16.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,019
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
$59,340
Kept after tax
$49,860
Worth in national money
$49,019
State rank
50
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alaska is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $59,340, ranking 50 of 50 states — about 38.61% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Alaska, this sits in the middle: 263 of 430 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $59,340, tax leaves $49,860, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $49,019 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $68,900, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alaska ranks 50 of 50 for postmasters and mail superintendents, with a median of $59,340 — about 38.61% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Postmasters and mail superintendents ranks 263 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.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for postmasters and mail superintendents — median $59,340 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,860 retained, $49,019 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $68,900 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Postmasters and Mail Superintendents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,330 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,340 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,420 |
| This salary | $59,340 |
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 | $49,860 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,860 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,290 |
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 | $59,340 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,770 |
| 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 $59,340. The published range is $51,330 up to $99,420, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $49,860 take-home in Alaska comes from $59,340. 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 263 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $49,019, the adjusted value of that $59,340 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 263 of 430 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for postmasters and mail superintendents in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $51,330 to $99,420. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $49,860, from $59,340, 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 263 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 50 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $49,019 — the adjusted value of that $59,340 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 263 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 $68,900, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $51,330 and the top tenth $99,420 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $49,019 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $49,860 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $68,900. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($51,330) and the ninetieth ($99,420) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
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 $49,019 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 $49,860 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.