Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,932
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$6,808
14.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,276
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
$45,740
Kept after tax
$38,932
Worth in national money
$38,276
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Alaska. The middle earner gets $45,740. That is 37 of 51 states, and about 7.95% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 430 occupations Alaska publishes, this job lands at 365. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $45,740, tax leaves $38,932, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $38,276 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,900, since top earners drag the number up.
- For refuse and recyclable material collectors, Alaska sits in the lower band at $45,740, ranking 37 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 7.95%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Alaska, this work ranks 365 of 430 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for refuse and recyclable material collectors — median $45,740 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $38,932 retained, $38,276 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,900 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,310 |
| This salary | $45,740 |
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 | $38,932 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,932 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,788 |
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 | $45,740 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,163 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $45,740 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,620 and the ninetieth is $80,310 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,932 take-home in Alaska comes from $45,740. 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 365 of 430.
- Two cautions on $38,276, the adjusted value of that $45,740 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 365 of 430 locally.
- The Alaska median of $45,740 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,620 to $80,310. 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 $38,932, from $45,740, 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 365 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 51 for it.
- This $38,276 adjusted figure, worked from $45,740, 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 365 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 365 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 $51,900 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $31,620 and the top tenth $80,310 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Alaska run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $38,276 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $38,932 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 $51,900. 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 ($31,620) and the ninetieth ($80,310) 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 $38,276 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 $38,932 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.