Surveyors in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$78,863
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$20,687
20.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$77,534
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
$99,550
Kept after tax
$78,863
Worth in national money
$77,534
State rank
2
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for surveyors is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $99,550, putting the state 2 of 50 — about 31.96% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 430 occupations Alaska reports, surveyors comes in at 79 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $99,550 the take-home is $78,863, which is worth about $77,534 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $104,340, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For surveyors, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $99,550, ranking 2 of 50 and running about 31.96% 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.
- Surveyors ranks 79 of 430 occupations by median in Alaska, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for surveyors on its $99,550 median: $78,863 retained after tax becomes $77,534 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $104,340 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Surveyors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $73,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $99,550 |
| Top tenth earn over | $142,980 |
| This salary | $99,550 |
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 | $78,863 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $78,863 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,622 |
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 | $99,550 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,004 |
| 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 surveyors in Alaska earn under $99,550 and half over. The published range runs $73,520 at the tenth percentile to $142,980 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 $78,863, worked from $99,550. 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 79 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $77,534, the adjusted value of that $99,550 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 79 of 430 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for surveyors in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $73,520 to $142,980; 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 $78,863, on $99,550 for work ranking 79 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 79 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $77,534 — the adjusted value of that $99,550 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 79 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $104,340, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $73,520 at the bottom tenth to $142,980 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $77,534 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $78,863 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 $104,340. 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 ($73,520 to $142,980) 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 $77,534 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 $78,863 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.