Military Enlisted Salary in Alaska: Median $64,110 in 2026
Alaska (AK) · No state income tax · RPP 103.3 · Rank #1 of 51 for take-home
A Military Enlisted in Alaska earns a median of $64,110 per year, based on the most recent 2023 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release[1]adjusted for Alaska's Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity of 103.3 (US = 100)[2]. The 10th percentile starts at about $35,450, while the 90th percentile reaches $108,850. After federal income tax, FICA, and no Alaska income tax (one of the handful of no-tax states), a single-filer takes home roughly $53,640/year — about $4,470/month or $2,063 every other week.
Because Alaska is a mid-cost state (RPP 103.3), the real purchasing power of that take-home is roughly $51,928 in national-average terms. Among all 51 jurisdictions in the US, Alaska ranks #1 for take-home pay on a $64,110 gross — a Military Enlisted keeps 83.7% of every dollar earned after federal, state, and payroll taxes. Nationally, BLS projects 0% growth in this occupation through 2034[3], which typically translates into comparable demand at the Alaska state level.
Military Enlisted Salary Snapshot — Alaska (2026)
Every row cites a primary public dataset. Percentiles are BLS OEWS state-level where published; otherwise scaled from the national distribution by Alaska's RPP.
| Metric | Alaska | National | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median wage (P50) | $64,110 | $41,000 | [1] |
| 10th percentile (state) / 25th percentile (national) | $35,450 | $29,500 (P25) | [1] |
| 90th percentile | $108,850 | $74,000 | [1] |
| State employment (SOC group) | 8,800 | 1,290,000 | [1] |
| Cost-of-living index (BEA RPP) | 103.3 | 100.0 | [2] |
| Annual take-home (single filer) | $53,640 | $35,072* | [4][6] |
| Take-home rank (51 jurisdictions) | #1 | — | [4] |
| COL-adjusted take-home (real $) | $51,928 | — | [2] |
*National reference column uses Texas as a no-income-tax baseline to isolate the state-tax effect.
How Military Enlisted Salaries Work in Alaska
A Military Enlisted paycheck in Alaska is stacked the same way as every US paycheck: gross wage, then federal income tax withholding based on IRS Publication 17 bracket tables[4], then FICA — Social Security 6.2% (up to the 2025 wage base of $176,100) and Medicare 1.45% (plus 0.9% above $200,000)[5], then whatever the state layers on top. Alaska is one of a small group of states with no individual income tax. On a $64,110 gross, you save roughly $2,885–$4,488 per year vs an average-tax state — that's the Alaska "tax premium" built into take-home.[6]
Beyond income tax, two Alaska floors matter. State minimum wage sets the price of entry-level labor and pulls up the bottom of the wage distribution[7]. Cost of living — measured by the BEA Regional Price Parity of 103.3 — sets the price of housing, groceries, utilities, and services that determine how far the paycheck goes[2]. Together these two numbers explain most of the variance between nominal and real Military Enlisted compensation across states.
Local demand also matters. State-level OEWS puts about 8,800 people in this SOC group across Alaska, which lets employers compete on wages rather than benefits alone.The near-average RPP keeps nominal wages close to the US median for comparable roles. Two workers with identical Military Enlisted titles can therefore see very different take-home outcomes depending purely on Alaska's tax and cost profile.
The complete identity: take_home = gross − federal_tax − state_tax − FICA − pre_tax_deductions. Every number in the table above, and every paycheck calculator on CalcFi, runs that identity client-side. No inputs leave your browser.
Military Enlisted Salary by City in Alaska
Estimated median Military Enlistedsalary by metro, using each city's composite cost-of-living index against the Alaska statewide OEWS median. Rent is ACS + Zillow ZORI; unemployment is BLS LAUS.
| City | Est. median salary | COL index | Median rent | Est. net (monthly) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchorage, AK | $85,266 | 133 | $1,335/mo | $5,711 |
Sources: Zillow ZORI / Census ACS[9], BLS OEWS[1], BEA RPP[2]. City-level salary estimates scale the statewide OEWS median by each metro's composite COL index; actual employer wages can deviate by ±10–20% depending on industry mix.
Cost of Living vs Salary — Purchasing Power in Alaska
Nominal dollars only tell part of the story. The BEA Regional Price Parity for Alaska is 103.3 (US = 100)[2]. That means an identical basket of goods and services costs 3.3% more in Alaska than in an average-cost US location. A Military Enlisted's $53,640 nominal take-home therefore equals about $51,928 of national-average purchasing power.
Concretely, that shows up in three budget buckets:
- Housing. The single biggest driver. At a near-national RPP, expect housing to run 25–32% of take-home for a median Military Enlisted salary.
- Groceries + services.BEA publishes sub-indexes for goods, rents, and other services. Goods tend to be closer to national averages (they're traded); services and rents are where the big state-level spreads show up.
- State + local tax. Alaska's lack of state income tax improves real purchasing power by 6.5% to 9.0% vs average-tax states on a $64,110 salary — a meaningful wedge that stacks on top of the RPP effect.
The classic rule of thumb — "aim for take-home ≥ 3x your monthly housing cost" — holds in Alaska only above the 60th-percentile wage band for this occupation. Below that threshold, the RPP hit compounds with fixed housing costs and the real savings rate collapses. Above it, Alaska's higher absolute wages makes this a reasonable wealth-building state for Military Enlisteds.
Where Military Enlisteds Work in Alaska
BLS OEWS attributes roughly 8,800 Alaska workers to the Government & Military major group containing Military Enlisted.Major hiring industries for Military Enlisteds tend to cluster into three groups: (1) large private employers in government & military (primary source of wage pressure at the top of the distribution); (2) state and local government — consistently one of the top five government & military employers in most US states; and (3) federal government and contractors — especially relevant in states with large DoD or federal civilian footprints.
Typical entry requirement for this role is a high school diploma. Common tax-deductible professional expenses that Military Enlisteds in Alaska can consider — where itemizing makes sense — include: Uniform and equipment purchases, Moving expenses (PCS moves), Reserve component out-of-pocket expenses. Confirm deductibility with a CPA; 2017 TCJA changes limited unreimbursed employee expenses, but self-employed or contractor Military Enlisteds still get full Schedule C treatment.
Career Progression & Related Professions in Alaska
Early-career Military Enlisteds in Alaska typically start near the 10th percentile ($35,450), reach the median ($64,110) after 4–8 years, and enter the 90th percentile ($108,850) with senior or specialized roles. Related government & military occupations in Alaska:
Useful calculators for Military Enlisteds in Alaska
Other professions in Alaska
Local context: Alaska
Housing economics in Alaska. The median home value runs 17.3% above the U.S. baseline for Alaska is $420,000 per Zillow's home-value index. Effective property tax sits at 0.84% of assessed value, below the 0.99% national average tracked by the Tax Foundation. Lenders in Alaska have quoted 6.30% on the 30-year fixed product over the trailing four-week window per Freddie Mac PMMS — the prevailing posted rate before any borrower-specific lock-ins.
Income and tax climate. Median household income in Alaska reaches $91,260 per the ACS five-year vintage, pulling above the $78,538 U.S. median. Alaska's top marginal state income tax bracket lands at 0.00% — one of nine states that levies no broad-based income tax, shifting the revenue burden onto sales, property, and severance levies. BEA's Regional Price Parity scores Alaska at 130.0 (national = 100), meaning a dollar in Alaska buys 77¢ of national purchasing power.
How Alaska affects take-home pay. Federal FICA, Medicare, and income tax are identical for every wage earner regardless of state. Alaska's contribution is the state income tax overlay plus any state-level disability or paid-family-leave deductions. Where applicable, the calculator factors in the local minimum wage when an hourly-to-salary conversion is involved, and uses BLS OEWS median earnings for Alaska as the contextual baseline shown alongside your inputs.
Local context as of 2026-06-08. Live data sources are listed in the Sources section below; each metric carries its own retrieval date.
Alaska versus the U.S. baseline
How does Alaska stack up against the national average on the metrics that drive the calculators on this page? The table below pairs the Alaska-specific reading against the U.S. baseline so you can see at a glance whether your local scenario runs above or below typical. Three to five percentage points of difference on most of these inputs translates into meaningful changes in calculator output — for example, a 50-basis-point difference in mortgage rate moves the monthly payment on a $400,000 30-year loan by roughly $130.
| Metric | Alaska | U.S. baseline | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Military Enlisted salary[bls-oews] | $64,110 | $41,000 | 56.4% |
| Annual take-home (single filer)[irs] | $53,640 | $35,072 | 52.9% |
| Top marginal state income tax[state-dor] | None | ~4.08% (volume-weighted) | −4.08 pp |
| Cost-of-living index (BEA RPP)[bea-rpp] | 103.3 | 100.0 | 3.3 pts |
| Effective combined tax rate[irs] | 16.3% | ~24-28% (typical) | — |
How to use the Military Enlisted salary calculator for Alaska
Walk through estimating Military Enlisted pay in Alaska using state-specific BLS OEWS percentiles, IRS / state tax math, and BEA cost-of-living adjustments.
- Pre-fill with local dataEach calculator on this page loads with state- or city-specific defaults pulled live from primary sources (FRED, BLS, Zillow, Freddie Mac PMMS, IRS, BEA). The blue values shown next to each input are the local averages so you can see how your scenario compares to the typical case before changing anything.
- Override the inputs you controlChange any field to model your actual situation. The math reruns in your browser the moment you change a value — no signup, no API call, no data transmission. Hover over the small (i) icon next to each label to see the formula that field feeds and where the default came from.
- Read the derived valuesThe result panel shows the primary calculation (monthly payment, take-home pay, savings projection, etc.) plus the intermediate values that drive it. Each line item is labeled with the formula component it represents so you can verify the arithmetic against any agency publication, textbook, or competing calculator.
- Adjust assumptions and re-runMost calculators have a section for assumption inputs that are easy to overlook — annual raises, expected return, inflation, vacancy rate, depreciation schedule, marginal vs. effective tax treatment. The defaults are conservative; aggressive scenarios usually require explicit overrides.
- Save to "My Numbers"When the inputs match your reality, click Save to "My Numbers". The values persist to your device's local storage (IndexedDB) and reload automatically on your next visit. Nothing is transmitted to any CalcFi server — the saved-state feature is deliberately client-side only for privacy.
- Compare scenarios side by sideMost calculators offer a comparison view that shows two or more scenarios side by side. Use this to model decision points: 15-year vs 30-year mortgage, Roth vs Traditional IRA, salary vs hourly, lease vs buy. The comparison view also produces a shareable summary you can download as PNG or PDF.
Frequently Asked Questions — Military Enlisted in Alaska
What is the median salary for a Military Enlisted in Alaska?
Based on BLS OEWS 2023 state-level data and BEA RPP cost-of-living adjustments, the median Military Enlisted in Alaska earns approximately $64,110/year. The 10th percentile is around $35,450 and the 90th percentile reaches $108,850. State OEWS lists about 8,800 people employed in this occupational group statewide.
How much does a Military Enlisted take home after taxes in Alaska?
On a $64,110 gross salary, a single-filer Military Enlisted in Alaska takes home approximately $53,640/year ($4,470/month, $2,063 bi-weekly) after federal income tax (8.7%), FICA (Social Security + Medicare). Combined effective rate: 16.3%. Numbers assume the standard deduction; itemizing or pre-tax 401(k) contributions will raise your net.
How does Alaska compare to other states for Military Enlisted take-home pay?
Alaska ranks #1 out of 51 for Military Enlisted take-home pay at the $64,110 state median salary. The best state for this gross is Alaska ($53,640/yr take-home) and the worst is Oregon ($48,584/yr). A Military Enlisted in Alaska keeps 83.7% of every gross dollar earned.
What is the cost-of-living-adjusted salary for a Military Enlisted in Alaska?
Alaska's BEA regional price parity is 103.3 (US = 100), meaning the state's $53,640 take-home is equivalent to about $51,928 of national-average purchasing power. Because living costs are 3.3% above average, the nominal salary buys less than it would in a median-cost state.
How do Military Enlisted salaries vary by city in Alaska?
Within Alaska, Military Enlisted salaries scale with metro-level cost of living. For example, Anchorage (133 COL index, estimated median $85,266). Higher-COL metros pay more in nominal terms, but after rent and groceries the net purchasing power often evens out.
What state taxes affect a Military Enlisted paycheck in Alaska?
Alaska has no state individual income tax. A Military Enlisted earning $64,110 saves roughly $2,885–$4,488 annually compared to an average-tax state. You still pay federal income tax and FICA. Alaska's property tax rate is 1.0% and state sales tax is none. No state income tax. No state sales tax (local sales taxes may apply).
What is the career outlook for Military Enlisteds in Alaska?
Nationally, BLS Employment Projections expect 0% growth in the Military Enlisted occupation through 2034. Alaska-specific demand typically tracks national trends, with adjustments for local industry mix. The typical entry requirement is a high school diploma, and Enlisted military members serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, or Space Force. Total compensation includes tax-free housing (BAH) and subsistence (BAS) allowances.
Methodology — How we compute this page
Wage percentiles. Primary source is the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) state-level release, 2023 vintage. We pull the state row for the SOC major group that contains Military Enlisted (33-0000). When the BLS suppresses a cell for data-quality reasons, we fall back to the national percentile scaled by Alaska's BEA RPP — the same method BLS's own reports use.
Take-home tax math. Federal tax uses 2025 IRS brackets and the single standard deduction ($15,000). State tax uses the Alaska2026 brackets from the state Department of Revenue, mirrored by Tax Foundation where the DoR's PDF is paywalled or split across multiple publications. FICA is Social Security 6.2% (capped at $176,100 wage base) + Medicare 1.45% + 0.9% Additional Medicare above $200,000. All math is the deterministic identity take_home = gross − federal − state − FICA; no Monte Carlo or estimator models.
Cost-of-living adjustments.We use BEA's Regional Price Parities (RPP) for all-items. RPP is a purchasing-power index where US = 100. Real (COL-adjusted) take-home is nominal_take_home / (RPP / 100). City-level estimates scale the statewide OEWS median by each metro's composite COL index from our /data/cities.ts dataset, which merges Census ACS, BLS, and Zillow inputs.
Refresh cadence. BLS OEWS releases once a year (typically March, for the prior May reference period). BEA RPP releases once a year in December. Federal tax brackets are updated annually by the IRS (October inflation adjustment). State brackets refresh per legislative calendar. The dateModified shown above auto-bumps when any sourced value's retrievedAt changes — no template edit required.
Known limits.Statewide medians mask large intra-state variance — metros and rural counties can differ by 20–40% for the same SOC code. We don't currently bake in local income taxes (e.g. NYC, Portland-OR supplemental). We assume single-filer, standard deduction, no pre-tax contributions; users with itemized deductions or 401(k) deferrals should plug their specifics into the linked calculators. Suppressed BLS cells fall through to national-scaled fallbacks, which can under-estimate demand in specialty states.
Sources
Every number on this page cites a primary public dataset. Last reviewed (auto-bumped on the next ISR refresh after an ETL run).
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) — state-level occupational wages — www.bls.gov/oes. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- BLS Employment Projections — 2024–34 occupational growth rates — www.bls.gov/emp. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities by State (all-items RPP) — www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- Internal Revenue Service — Federal individual income tax brackets and standard deductions — www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-17. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- Social Security Administration — OASDI / Medicare contribution and wage-base rules — www.ssa.gov. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- Alaska Department of Revenue — 2026 individual income tax brackets (accessed via Tax Foundation mirror) — taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-income-tax-rates. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — State Minimum Wage Laws — www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — real median household income per state — fred.stlouisfed.org. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
- U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates — www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
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For personalized calculations, use the Alaska Paycheck Calculator.