- No state pays welders more at the median.
- Alaska pays more than both nearby states it is compared with.
- BLS counts about 790 welders on payrolls in Alaska.
- At the state median wage, a welding and fabrication shop needs to bill about $138.85 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Welder pay in Alaska, bottom to top
BLS counts welders, cutters, solderers and brazers as one group. It covers people who join or cut metal with welding, cutting, soldering and brazing equipment, by hand or on machines, in shops, plants and on job sites.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $23.88 | $49,660 | $18.87 |
| 25th percentile | $29.46 | $61,280 | $22.50 |
| Median | $38.87 | $80,840 | $25.84 |
| 75th percentile | $47.36 | $98,500 | $30.29 |
| 90th percentile | $52.85 | $109,940 | $37.28 |
| Average (mean) | $38.51 | $80,100 | $27.29 |
Pay spreads out a lot in Alaska. The bottom tenth earn $23.88 an hour or less while the top tenth earn $52.85 or more, a gap of 2.2 times against 2 nationally. Where a welder sits on that range matters as much as the state.
Both ends of the scale beat the national figures: $23.88 against $18.87 at the bottom tenth, and $52.85 against $37.28 at the top.
The average, $38.51, is close to the median, so pay sits fairly evenly around the middle.
How Alaska compares with other states
Over a full year, the Alaska median of $80,840 is $27,090 more than the national $53,750.
No state pays more. The next highest is Hawaii at $37.98, and the lowest is Arkansas at $23.06.
Alaska has no land border, so it is set here against Washington and Oregon. Alaska pays more than both.
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.
Every state ranked, with the national pay range: national welder salary by state.
| Nearby state | Median hourly | Median yearly | Against Alaska |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | $38.87 | $80,840 | |
| Washington | $30.30 | $63,020 | −$8.57 an hour |
| Oregon | $28.58 | $59,450 | −$10.29 an hour |
How many welders work in Alaska
Alaska has one of the smaller workforces in the trade: 790 welders on payrolls, 0.2% of the 416,210 nationwide.
That is 2.4 of every 1,000 jobs in Alaska, close to the trade's share of jobs nationally.
What a welding and fabrication shop in Alaska should charge
Higher wages in Alaska go straight into the price. Take a welding and fabrication shop in Alaska paying the state median of $38.87 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 | $38.87 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $87,035 |
| Break-even rate | ($87,035 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $118.02 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $118.02 ÷ 0.85 | $138.85 |
That is $138.85 per billable hour, 3.6 times the wage, and $22.88 more than the $115.97 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $47.36 in Alaska, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $153.76.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $29.46, the rate only drops to $122.33.
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 labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Working as a welder in Alaska
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how welding and fabrication shops 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 51-4121, welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers, 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: welder salary by state.