Cooks, Short Order in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,083
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$5,157
15.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,119
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
$33,240
Kept after tax
$28,083
Worth in national money
$31,119
State rank
28
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Montana is 28 of 49 states for cooks, short order, with a middle wage of $33,240. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Montana this is lower-paid work. Of 475 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, short order ranks 459. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Montana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $33,240 the take-home is $28,083; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $31,119 would nationally. The average comes to $33,420, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Montana ranks 28 of 49 for cooks, short order at $33,240. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Montana reports, cooks, short order ranks 459 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 cooks, short order in Montana, on $33,240, is $28,083 — equivalent to $31,119 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 $33,420 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $33,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,310 |
| This salary | $33,240 |
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 | $28,083 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $28,888 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,391 |
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 | $32,237 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,682 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $33,240 as a midpoint for Montana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,890 and the ninetieth is $36,310 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Montana's $28,083, worked from $33,240. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 459 of 475.
- Two cautions on $31,119, the adjusted value of that $33,240 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 459 of 475 locally.
- The Montana median of $33,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,890 to $36,310. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Montana take-home of $28,083, on $33,240 for work ranking 459 of 475 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 459 of 475 in the state.
- This $31,119 adjusted figure, worked from $33,240, 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 459 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 459 of 475 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $29,890 at the bottom tenth to $36,310 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 $31,119.
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 $28,083 of this wage survives to your account.
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 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($29,890 to $36,310) 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 $31,119 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 $28,083 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.