Project Management Specialists in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$78,885
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$20,695
20.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$77,554
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
$99,580
Kept after tax
$78,885
Worth in national money
$77,554
State rank
24
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alaska sits in the middle of the pack for project management specialists. The median is $99,580, ranking 24 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 430 occupations Alaska reports, project management specialists comes in at 78 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $99,580 the take-home is $78,885, which is worth about $77,554 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $103,850, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Alaska occupies the middle band for project management specialists: a median of $99,580, ranking 24 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Project management specialists ranks 78 of 430 occupations by median in Alaska, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for project management specialists on its $99,580 median: $78,885 retained after tax becomes $77,554 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $103,850 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Project Management Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $99,580 |
| Top tenth earn over | $160,710 |
| This salary | $99,580 |
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 | $78,885 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $78,885 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,623 |
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 | $99,580 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,005 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $99,580 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $53,360 and the ninetieth is $160,710 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $78,885 take-home in Alaska comes from $99,580. 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 78 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $77,554 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 78.
- The Alaska median of $99,580 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $53,360 to $160,710. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $78,885, from $99,580, 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 78 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 24 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $77,554, worked from $99,580, 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 78 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 $103,850, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $53,360 at the bottom tenth to $160,710 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $77,554 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $78,885 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 $103,850. 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 ($53,360) and the ninetieth ($160,710) 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 $77,554 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 $78,885 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.