Insights / Highest-paying healthcare jobs / Alaska
5 highest-paying healthcare jobs in Alaska
Alaska's quiet premium is dental hygienists, not the pharmacist wage everyone already expects to be high.
The comp committee stopped once it saw pharmacists and treated the rest of Alaska as the same kind of expensive.
Pharmacists do lead the medians, at $167,310 against $140,910 nationally, with a 75th percentile of $173,600. That gap is real, and it is the one finance already built into the pharmacist req.
Dental hygienists are the row that changes a posting. Their median is $132,690 against $98,100 nationally, 1.35 times the country, and the 75th percentile is only $136,450. The band is tight and high. A national hygienist midpoint is not a polite starting point in Alaska. It is a different market.
Ranked table
| Rank | Occupation | State median | 75th percentile | U.S. median | State vs U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pharmacists | $167,310 | $173,600 | $140,910 | 1.19 |
| 2 | Nurse Practitioners | $155,170 | $172,000 | $132,300 | 1.17 |
| 3 | Physician Assistants | $150,700 | $169,930 | $135,880 | 1.11 |
| 4 | Dental Hygienists | $132,690 | $136,450 | $98,100 | 1.35 |
| 5 | Physical Therapists | $115,280 | $129,760 | $102,760 | 1.12 |
Takeaways
- Nurse practitioners are at $155,170, with a 75th percentile of $172,000, against $132,300 nationally.
- Physician assistants are at $150,700, against $135,880 nationally. Their 75th percentile is $169,930.
- Physical therapists close the five at $115,280, against $102,760 nationally.
- Alaska is 2 of 51 on this ranking. The sort is the top median, which is why pharmacists open the page and hygienists are easy to skip.
For recruiters
- Localize the hygienist offer before you add another board. The band is already tight at the top.
- Do not let the pharmacist req set the language for every other license on the list.
FAQ
- Are these posted wages or open jobs?
- No. The table is a government survey or a designation file.
- What should a recruiter do first?
- Follow the recruiter note on this page.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Related hiring pages
Methodology
Rows are the 5 occupations on the 25-occupation hiring list with the highest Alaska OEWS median, limited to occupations that also publish a 75th percentile. OEWS May 2025. A comparison of 1.00 matches the U.S. median. Sorted by the leading median, Alaska is 2 of 51. A row links to the Alaska metro page with the highest public market difficulty score for that occupation when one is published, and otherwise to the occupation page on the hiring grid. An unpublished percentile or employment count is shown as unpublished rather than replaced with a zero. The wages are annual OEWS figures. They are not job listings and they are not an employer's current offer. Read the comparison beside the dollar figures: a high state wage can still sit under the national median for that occupation, and a lower state wage can still sit above it. Rounded figures in the prose: $167,310 is stated as about $167.3K. a comparison of 1.19 is stated as 19 percent. $140,910 is stated as about $140.9K. $173,600 is stated as about $173.6K. $115,280 is stated as about $115.3K. a comparison of 1.12 is stated as 12 percent. Rounded figures in the prose: $155,170 is stated as about $155.2K. a comparison of 1.17 is stated as 17 percent. $150,700 is stated as about $150.7K. a comparison of 1.11 is stated as 11 percent. $132,690 is stated as about $132.7K. a comparison of 1.35 is stated as 35 percent.
Sources
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