Carpet Installers in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,102
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$7,738
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,004
Montana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Montana — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
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
$43,840
Kept after tax
$36,102
Worth in national money
$40,004
State rank
37
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Montana pays carpet installers a middle wage of $43,840, 37 of 45 states and about 12.91% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Montana this is lower-paid work. Of 475 occupations the state publishes figures for, carpet installers ranks 370. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Montana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $43,840 the take-home is $36,102; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $40,004 would nationally. The average lands at $41,430, below the middle of the range.
- Montana's $43,840 median for carpet installers places it 37 of 45 states, about 12.91% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Montana reports, carpet installers ranks 370 of 475, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Post-tax income for carpet installers in Montana, on $43,840, is $36,102 — equivalent to $40,004 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $41,430 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Carpet Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,820 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,750 |
| This salary | $43,840 |
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
| Take-home in Montana | $36,102 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,405 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,512 |
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
| To match take-home only | $42,217 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,828 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of carpet installers in Montana earn under $43,840 and half over. The published range runs $27,820 at the tenth percentile to $47,750 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $36,102 take-home in Montana comes from $43,840. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 370 of 475.
- Two cautions on $40,004, the adjusted value of that $43,840 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 370 of 475 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for carpet installers in Montana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $27,820 to $47,750; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $36,102, from $43,840, assumes a single Montana filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 370 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 45 for it.
- This $40,004 adjusted figure, worked from $43,840, 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 370 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 370 of 475 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $41,430, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $27,820 and the top tenth $47,750, so most people doing this work in Montana sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Montana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $40,004 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Montana's own levy, $36,102 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $41,430. 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 ($27,820 to $47,750) 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 $40,004 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 $36,102 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.