Security Guards in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,330
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$7,150
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,650
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
$47,480
Kept after tax
$40,330
Worth in national money
$39,650
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alaska is one of the better-paying states for security guards. The middle earner takes $47,480, which ranks 2 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 24.88% above the national middle.
- Against 430 occupations Alaska publishes, security guards lands at 341. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $47,480, tax leaves $40,330, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $39,650 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $54,140, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alaska ranks 2 of 51 states publishing a median for security guards, at $47,480 — about 24.88% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Alaska, this work ranks 341 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 security guards — median $47,480 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $40,330 retained, $39,650 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $54,140 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Security Guards
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,480 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,350 |
| This salary | $47,480 |
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 | $40,330 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,330 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,852 |
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 | $47,480 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,240 |
| 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 security guards in Alaska earn under $47,480 and half over. The published range runs $36,520 at the tenth percentile to $76,350 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Alaska the take-home figure of $40,330, from $47,480, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 341 of 430 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $39,650, the adjusted value of that $47,480 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 341 of 430 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for security guards in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,520 to $76,350; 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.
- Take-home for Alaska is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $40,330 from $47,480. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 341 of 430 locally.
- This $39,650 adjusted figure, worked from $47,480, 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 341 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 341 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 $54,140 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $36,520, the highest tenth $76,350, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $39,650 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $40,330 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?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $54,140. 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 ($36,520) and the ninetieth ($76,350) 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 $39,650 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 $40,330 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.