Structural Iron and Steel Workers in Alaska

A hard hat, safety glasses and tool belt beside timber house framing.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$62,978

after federal, FICA and Alaska tax

Tax takes

$13,992

18.2% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$61,917

Alaska costs more than average

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

$76,970

Kept after tax

$62,978

Worth in national money

$61,917

State rank

15

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Alaska is one of the better-paying states for structural iron and steel workers. The middle earner takes $76,970, which ranks 15 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 22.6% above the national middle.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 430 occupations Alaska reports figures for, this is number 179.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $76,970, tax leaves $62,978, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,917 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $81,450, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Alaska ranks 15 of 50 states publishing a median for structural iron and steel workers, at $76,970 — about 22.6% 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.
  • In Alaska's occupational distribution, structural iron and steel workers sits at 179 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 structural iron and steel workers — median $76,970 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $62,978 retained, $61,917 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $81,450 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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Pay band: Structural Iron and Steel Workers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$65,990
Half earn under$76,970
Top tenth earn over$99,980
This salary$76,970

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

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Alaska$62,978
Take-home in Texas$62,978
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$2,893

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

Moving to
$0now · $76,970$72,974
$72,974in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$76,970
You could take a cut of−$3,996
Prices in Texas97 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 structural iron and steel workers in Alaska earn under $76,970 and half over. The published range runs $65,990 at the tenth percentile to $99,980 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $62,978, worked from $76,970. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 179 of 430.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $61,917, the adjusted value of that $76,970 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 179 of 430 in the state.
  • Figures are distribution medians for structural iron and steel workers in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $65,990 to $99,980; 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.
  • The Alaska take-home of $62,978, on $76,970 for work ranking 179 of 430 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 179 of 430 in the state.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $61,917 — the adjusted value of that $76,970 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 179 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 $81,450, 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?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $65,990 and the top tenth $99,980, 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 $61,917 of national purchasing power.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

Less than people assume. $62,978 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?

Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.

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 $81,450. 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 ($65,990 to $99,980) 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 $61,917 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 $62,978 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.