- The middle half earn between $35.40 and $49.44 an hour.
- Only 4 states pay plumbers more at the median.
- Alaska pays more than 1 of its 2 nearby states it is compared with.
- BLS counts about 1,200 plumbers on payrolls in Alaska.
- At the state median wage, a plumbing business needs to bill about $149.88 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Plumber pay in Alaska, bottom to top
BLS counts plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters as one group, so the figures include industrial pipe work as well as service and new construction plumbing.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $25.83 | $53,730 | $21.22 |
| 25th percentile | $35.40 | $73,640 | $24.13 |
| Median | $45.15 | $93,920 | $30.67 |
| 75th percentile | $49.44 | $102,820 | $40.92 |
| 90th percentile | $58.97 | $122,660 | $52.13 |
| Average (mean) | $43.49 | $90,460 | $34.70 |
From the bottom tenth ($25.83) to the top tenth ($58.97), the top of the scale pays about 2.3 times the bottom in Alaska, close to the 2.5 times spread for plumbers nationwide.
Both ends of the scale beat the national figures: $25.83 against $21.22 at the bottom tenth, and $58.97 against $52.13 at the top.
The average wage ($43.49) is a little under the median, so the low end of the range stretches further than the high end in Alaska.
How Alaska compares with other states
Over a full year, the Alaska median of $93,920 is $30,120 more than the national $63,800.
In the state ranking, Alaska sits 5th, between Minnesota ($45.39) and Massachusetts ($45.14). The range runs from $23.39 in Arkansas to $48.57 in the District of Columbia.
Alaska has no land border, so it is set here against Washington and Oregon. Oregon pays more and Washington pays less.
These are wages as paid, not adjusted for what it costs to live in Alaska. Rent, home prices and taxes decide how far a higher wage goes.
| Nearby state | Median hourly | Median yearly | Against Alaska |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | $45.15 | $93,920 | |
| Washington | $38.96 | $81,030 | −$6.19 an hour |
| Oregon | $46.66 | $97,050 | +$1.51 an hour |
How many plumbers work in Alaska
Alaska has one of the smaller workforces in the trade: 1,200 plumbers on payrolls, 0.3% of the 465,840 nationwide.
The trade is a bigger part of the local job market than it is nationally: 3.7 of every 1,000 jobs in Alaska, 1.2 times the national share.
What a plumbing business in Alaska should charge
Higher wages in Alaska go straight into the price. Take a plumbing business in Alaska paying the state median of $45.15 and run it through the labor rate calculator with its starting numbers (40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit).
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $45.15 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $101,096 |
| Break-even rate | ($101,096 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $127.40 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $127.40 ÷ 0.85 | $149.88 |
That is $149.88 per billable hour, 3.3 times the wage, and $25.43 more than the $124.45 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $49.44 in Alaska, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $157.41.
At this wage the pay itself is the biggest part of the price, so every raise shows up in the rate: a dollar more an hour adds about $1.76 per billed hour.
Run it with your own numbers in the plumbing labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Working as a plumber in Alaska
- Licensing. What Alaska asks for before you can work on your own: Plumbing license in Alaska.
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how plumbing companies run on Koira.
- Getting found. The free Koira report checks how your business shows up in search and on maps against shops near you.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 47-2152, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: plumber salary by state.