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Employment and
Taxes
The average annual pay in Anchorage rose 1.9
percent in 1999 to $35,441. Among the nation’s 315
metropolitan areas, Anchorage’s pay level ranked
23rd highest overall, buts its percentage
gain in pay was one of the lowest nationwide. The
national growth rate for all metropolitan areas was
5.2 percent. Anchorage’s per capita personal
income is about $27,914. This compares to Salt Lake
City, Utah, at $14,000 and San Francisco,
California, at $34,281. The average Alaska income is
$24,046. The national state average is $23,196.
Workers in the Anchorage metropolitan area
averaged $18.87 per hour during November 1999,
according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS). This is $3.15 more than
the U.S. average.
White-collar workers averaged $21.14 per hour,
blue-collar workers averaged $17.32 per hour, while
those working in service occupations earned $12.07
per hour.
The highest paid per-hour occupation in Anchorage
is airline pilot at $113.58. However, pilots do not
usually average 40 hours per week, so their annual
salary totals about $126,245.
The lowest paid occupation in Anchorage is
waiting tables at $5.90 per hour. However, the U.S.
average is only $4.19 per hour.
Among white-collar workers, engineers,
architects, and surveyors averaged $34.97 per hour,
registered nurses $24.42, secretaries $14.49, and
bank tellers $9.17.
Blue-collar occupations included electricians
earning $24.84 per hour, truck drivers at $15.83,
and stock handlers and baggers at $9.56 per hour. In
the service occupations, cooks averaged $11.22 per
hour, nursing aids, orderlies, and attendants
$11.05, and maids and housemen averaged $9.66.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Anchorage’s blue-collar workers are still among
the highest paid in the country.
As of May 1999, the average unemployment rate in
Alaska was 7.2 percent and Anchorage was at 4.8
percent.
Anchorage residents and businesses enjoy the
lowest state and local taxes in the nation. The high
level of crude oil royalties and taxes Alaska
collects from the oil industry helps ensure that the
government is well funded. Most Alaskan families
receive more income from Alaska’s Permanent Fund
investments than they pay in state and local taxes.
Anchorage has no sales tax and no state income
tax. There is, however, an 8 percent bed tax, in
addition to a flat aircraft tax, rental car tax,
alcohol tax, fuel tax, and tobacco tax.
Property tax varies throughout the city and is a
flat rate per dollar value of taxable property
residents own.
The flat rate, called a mill levy or mill rate,
is $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. If you
are taxed four mills for education and your house is
assessed at $100,000, you pay $4 per $1,000 of
assessed value, or $400 in taxes.
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