diff --git a/galleries/examples/axisartist/demo_ticklabel_alignment.py b/galleries/examples/axisartist/demo_ticklabel_alignment.py
index b68b8263f2ed..ca54997717d8 100644
--- a/galleries/examples/axisartist/demo_ticklabel_alignment.py
+++ b/galleries/examples/axisartist/demo_ticklabel_alignment.py
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@
 Ticklabel alignment
 ===================
 
+Because axisartist groups all ticks into a single object, the global alignment
+of the ticks can be set directly.
+
+See also :doc:`/gallery/ticks/align_ticklabels` for some workarounds that can
+be used when working with standard axes.
 """
 
 
diff --git a/galleries/examples/ticks/align_ticklabels.py b/galleries/examples/ticks/align_ticklabels.py
index ec36e0db4d07..5e4072eabce5 100644
--- a/galleries/examples/ticks/align_ticklabels.py
+++ b/galleries/examples/ticks/align_ticklabels.py
@@ -1,14 +1,24 @@
-"""
-=================
-Align tick labels
-=================
+r"""
+==========================
+Left-aligned y tick labels
+==========================
 
 By default, tick labels are aligned towards the axis. This means the set of
-*y* tick labels appear right-aligned. Because the alignment reference point
-is on the axis, left-aligned tick labels would overlap the plotting area.
-To achieve a good-looking left-alignment, you have to additionally increase
-the padding.
+y tick labels appear right-aligned.
+
+To obtain left-aligned y tick labels, a solution is to force their
+horizontal-alignment to "left".  However, because the alignment reference point
+is on the axis, such labels would overlap the plotting area, so the label
+padding needs to be additionally increased.
+
+An alternate solution is to use the mathtext commands ``\rlap`` and
+``\phantom`` to manipulate the widths of the tick labels as seen by Matplotlib.
+See https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb22-4/tb72perlS.pdf for a detailed description
+of this approach.
+
+See also :doc:`/gallery/axisartist/demo_ticklabel_alignment`.
 """
+
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
 population = {
@@ -20,13 +30,34 @@
     "Shanghai": 21.9,
 }
 
-fig, ax = plt.subplots(layout="constrained")
+fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 2, layout="constrained")
+
+# First solution: Force the horizontal-alignment of y tick labels to "left",
+# and increase the padding (to a manually chosen value).
+
+ax = axs[0]
 ax.barh(population.keys(), population.values())
 ax.set_xlabel('Population (in millions)')
-
-# left-align all ticklabels
 for ticklabel in ax.get_yticklabels():
     ticklabel.set_horizontalalignment("left")
-
-# increase padding
 ax.tick_params("y", pad=70)
+
+
+# Second solution: Use mathtext to manipulate the width of ylabels as seen
+# by Matplotlib.  Here, \rlap means "draw this text, but don't advance the
+# cursor", whereas \phantom means "advance the cursor by the width of the
+# enclosed text, but without actually drawing the text".  The end result is
+# that the labels get aligned as if "Mexico City" was written every time, but
+# the real labels are actually drawn.
+
+# Note that the widest label ("Mexico City") is still hard-coded here (it is
+# the widest *rendered* label, which is not necessarily the longest label in
+# characters).
+def left_aligned_label(s):
+    return r"$\rlap{\text{%s}}\phantom{\text{Mexico City}}$" % s
+
+ax = axs[1]
+ax.barh([*map(left_aligned_label, population)], population.values())
+ax.set_xlabel('Population (in millions)')
+
+plt.show()