Special Education Teachers, Preschool in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,384
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$15,006
18.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$64,282
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
$80,390
Kept after tax
$65,384
Worth in national money
$64,282
State rank
7
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays this job a middle wage of $80,390, ranking 7 of 45 states and sitting about 24% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Alaska, this sits in the middle: 146 of 430 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Alaska costs about what the country costs, so from $80,390, take-home of $65,384 is worth roughly $64,282 in national money. The average lands at $78,420, below the middle of the range.
- Alaska's median for special education teachers, preschool is $80,390, about 24% above the national figure and 7 of 45 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Special education teachers, preschool ranks 146 of 430 occupations in Alaska by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Alaska is near the national base, so for special education teachers, preschool, whose median is $80,390, the adjusted figure of $64,282 differs little from $65,384 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $78,420 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Special Education Teachers, Preschool
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,390 |
| Top tenth earn over | $98,240 |
| This salary | $80,390 |
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 | $65,384 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,384 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,003 |
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 | $80,390 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,148 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $80,390 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $51,760 and the ninetieth is $98,240 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $65,384 take-home in Alaska comes from $80,390. 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 146 of 430.
- Two cautions on $64,282, the adjusted value of that $80,390 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 146 of 430 locally.
- The Alaska median of $80,390 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $51,760 to $98,240. 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 $65,384, from $80,390, 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 146 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 7 of 45 for it.
- This $64,282 adjusted figure, worked from $80,390, 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 146 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 146 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $51,760 and the top tenth $98,240, so most people doing this work in Alaska sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Alaska costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $64,282 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $65,384 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.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($51,760 to $98,240) 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 $64,282 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 $65,384 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.