Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$64,435
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$14,605
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,348
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
$79,040
Kept after tax
$64,435
Worth in national money
$63,348
State rank
25
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Alaska pays this job around $79,040 at the midpoint, 25 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 430 occupations Alaska reports figures for, this is number 158.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $79,040, tax leaves $64,435, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,348 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $93,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- For psychology teachers, postsecondary the Alaska median is $79,040, ranking 25 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- In Alaska's occupational distribution, psychology teachers, postsecondary sits at 158 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.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for psychology teachers, postsecondary — median $79,040 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $64,435 retained, $63,348 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $93,630 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $78,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $122,810 |
| This salary | $79,040 |
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 | $64,435 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,435 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,960 |
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 | $79,040 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,088 |
| 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 psychology teachers, postsecondary in Alaska earn under $79,040 and half over. The published range runs $78,120 at the tenth percentile to $122,810 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $64,435 take-home in Alaska comes from $79,040. 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 158 of 430.
- Two cautions on $63,348, the adjusted value of that $79,040 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 158 of 430 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for psychology teachers, postsecondary in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $78,120 to $122,810; 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 $64,435, from $79,040, 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 158 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 50 for it.
- This $63,348 adjusted figure, worked from $79,040, 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 158 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 158 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $93,630, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $78,120 and the top tenth $122,810, 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 $63,348 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $64,435 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?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $93,630. 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 ($78,120 to $122,810) 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 $63,348 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 $64,435 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.