The average hourly wage in Alaska was $33.60 in 2023, putting the state in 11th place among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Alaska Department of Labor.
The median hourly wage — which is calculated in a way that reduces the influence of the highest and lowest numbers — was $26.99.
Alaska has been among the top states for wages since the oil pipeline boom almost 50 years ago, and was No. 1 as recently as 2013, but has been falling and was eighth in 2022.
Wage and job statistics were detailed in a pair of articles by state analysts and published in the December issue of Alaska Economic Trends, the Department of Labor’s monthly magazine.
An article by research analyst Samantha Jenkins showed the wide range in hourly wages earned by workers in the state’s top 10 occupations in 2023. Among those occupations, general and operations managers earned the most, at $58.09 an hour on average, followed by registered nurses, averaging $52.51.
At the bottom among those 10 occupations were fast food and counter workers, whose average pay was $14.91 per hour, and cashiers, whose average pay was $17.04 per hour, the article said.
The national average hourly pay in 2023 was $31.48, Jenkins’ article said.
Alaskans’ average pay rose by 5.2% in 2023, outpacing the 1.5% inflation rate, said a separate article by Karinne Wiebold, a department economist. That was a reversal of the situation in 2021 and 2022, when inflation rates of 4.9% and 8.1% were higher than average wage growth in the state, said Wiebold’s article.
Wrangell was among the leaders across the state for job growth from 2022 to 2023, adding 76 jobs, 11%, to reach 749 in 2023, according to state Department of Labor numbers. In addition to growing tourism industry numbers, the higher job count likely was due to Trident Seafoods reopening its salmon processing plant after a three-year closure.
The average annual wage in Wrangell in 2023 was $55,146, a gain over 2022’s average of $51,886. Though Wrangell was significantly below the statewide average annual wage of $68,123 in 2023, the community was ahead of Haines, Petersburg, Skagway and Hoonah-Angoon, while behind the biggest towns in Southeast of Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan.
The total number of jobs in the state in 2023 was 3% higher in 2023 than in 2022, Wiebold’s analysis showed. But the total number of jobs was 1,135 lower than pre-pandemic levels.
In only four of 13 measured categories had job totals returned to levels above those in 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic. The health care sector had the biggest gains, with 1,640 jobs added from 2019 to 2023. In contrast, the oil and gas industry had 2,353 fewer jobs in 2023 than it did before the pandemic, Wiebold’s article said.
The oil and gas industry is the highest-paying industry in Alaska, with an average annual pay of $181,143, Wiebold’s article said.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.
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