Funeral Attendants in Montana

A small group standing together at a graveside on an overcast morning.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$30,988

after federal, FICA and Montana tax

Tax takes

$6,092

16.4% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$34,338

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

$37,080

Kept after tax

$30,988

Worth in national money

$34,338

State rank

21

of 48 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Montana sits in the middle of the pack for funeral attendants. The median is $37,080, ranking 21 of 48 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
  • Measured against other jobs in Montana, this one sits low: 432 of 475 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $37,080 you keep $30,988 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,338 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $38,650, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Montana occupies the middle band for funeral attendants: a median of $37,080, ranking 21 of 48. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
  • Funeral attendants occupies position 432 of 475 in Montana's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
  • Retained pay in Montana is $30,988 after the full tax stack, from $37,080. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,338 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $38,650 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Funeral Attendants

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$33,510
Half earn under$37,080
Top tenth earn over$43,880
This salary$37,080

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
+$986take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Montana$30,988
Take-home in Texas$31,974
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,434

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$38,815
$38,815in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$35,853
Raise you would need+$1,735
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $37,080 as a midpoint for Montana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,510 and the ninetieth is $43,880 — 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 $30,988, worked from $37,080. 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 432 of 475.
  • Two cautions on $34,338, the adjusted value of that $37,080 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 432 of 475 locally.
  • The Montana median of $37,080 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,510 to $43,880. 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 $30,988, on $37,080 for work ranking 432 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 432 of 475 in the state.
  • This $34,338 adjusted figure, worked from $37,080, 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 432 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 432 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 $38,650 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $33,510 at the tenth percentile, $43,880 at the ninetieth.

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 $34,338 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, $30,988 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 $38,650. 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 ($33,510 to $43,880) 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 $34,338 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 $30,988 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.