Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,508
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$8,172
15.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,758
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
$52,680
Kept after tax
$44,508
Worth in national money
$43,758
State rank
1
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $52,680, putting the state 1 of 46 — about 23.17% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 304 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $52,680, tax leaves $44,508, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $43,758 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $50,980.
- For sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $52,680, ranking 1 of 46 and running about 23.17% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 304 of 430 in Alaska places sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood 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.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood — median $52,680 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $44,508 retained, $43,758 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $50,980 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,550 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,680 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,870 |
| This salary | $52,680 |
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 | $44,508 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,508 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,044 |
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 | $52,680 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,472 |
| 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 $52,680. The published range is $37,550 up to $57,870, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $44,508 take-home in Alaska comes from $52,680. 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 304 of 430.
- Two cautions on $43,758, the adjusted value of that $52,680 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 304 of 430 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,550 to $57,870. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $44,508, from $52,680, 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 304 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 1 of 46 for it.
- This $43,758 adjusted figure, worked from $52,680, 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 304 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 304 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 $50,980, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $37,550 at the bottom tenth to $57,870 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $43,758 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $44,508 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 46 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 $50,980. 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 ($37,550 to $57,870) 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 $43,758 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 $44,508 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.