Clinical and Counseling Psychologists in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,290
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$13,870
20.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,160
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
$68,160
Kept after tax
$54,290
Worth in national money
$60,160
State rank
47
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Montana pays this job a middle wage of $68,160, 47 of 48 states and about 32.23% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Montana, this sits in the middle: 156 of 475 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Montana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $68,160 the take-home is $54,290; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $60,160 would nationally. The average comes to $106,980, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Montana's $68,160 median for clinical and counseling psychologists places it 47 of 48 states, about 32.23% 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.
- Clinical and counseling psychologists ranks 156 of 475 occupations in Montana by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for clinical and counseling psychologists in Montana, on $68,160, is $54,290 — equivalent to $60,160 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 $106,980 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Clinical and Counseling Psychologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $68,160 |
| Top tenth earn over | $143,640 |
| This salary | $68,160 |
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 | $54,290 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $56,781 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,728 |
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 | $64,854 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,387 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 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 $68,160. The published range is $49,800 up to $143,640, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $54,290 take-home in Montana comes from $68,160. 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 156 of 475.
- One number stands for prices across all of Montana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $60,160, the adjusted value of that $68,160 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 156 of 475 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for clinical and counseling psychologists in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,800 to $143,640. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $54,290, from $68,160, 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 156 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 47 of 48 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Montana, so $60,160 — the adjusted value of that $68,160 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 156 of 475 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $106,980, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $49,800, the highest tenth $143,640, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Montana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $60,160 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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, $54,290 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 48 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 $106,980. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($49,800) and the ninetieth ($143,640) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
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 $60,160 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 $54,290 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.