Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors in Montana

Books, colored pencils and a globe in a bright classroom.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$45,679

after federal, FICA and Montana tax

Tax takes

$10,821

19.2% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$50,617

Montana costs less than average

One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.

Median here

$56,500

Kept after tax

$45,679

Worth in national money

$50,617

State rank

29

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Middling, nationally. Montana pays this job around $56,500 at the midpoint, 29 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 475 occupations Montana reports figures for, this is number 253.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $56,500 you keep $45,679 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $50,617 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $61,300, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors the Montana median is $56,500, ranking 29 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
  • In Montana's occupational distribution, adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors sits at 253 of 475 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
  • Retained pay in Montana is $45,679 after the full tax stack, from $56,500. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $50,617 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $61,300 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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Pay band: Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$47,760
Half earn under$56,500
Top tenth earn over$77,900
This salary$56,500

Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.

The same pay, somewhere else

The state median for this job

Compare with
+$1,899take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Montana$45,679
Take-home in Texas$47,578
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,656

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.

What you would need there

The state median for this job

Moving to
$0$58,503
$58,503in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$54,137
Raise you would need+$2,003
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Montana earn less than $56,500. The published range is $47,760 up to $77,900, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • In Montana the take-home figure of $45,679, from $56,500, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 253 of 475 occupations here.
  • Two cautions on $50,617, the adjusted value of that $56,500 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Montana. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 253 of 475 locally.
  • Reported values are medians; for adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $47,760 to $77,900. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • Take-home for Montana is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $45,679 from $56,500. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 253 of 475 locally.
  • This $50,617 adjusted figure, worked from $56,500, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 253 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 253 of 475 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $61,300 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $47,760 at the bottom tenth to $77,900 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $50,617.

Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?

Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Montana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $45,679 of this wage survives to your account.

Why is this job missing from some states?

A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.

How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?

The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Montana is $61,300. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($47,760 to $77,900) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Montana rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Montana's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $50,617 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.

What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?

Take-home of $45,679 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Montana income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.

Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?

BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.