Healthcare Social Workers in Montana

Two armchairs facing each other in a welcoming counseling room.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$46,125

after federal, FICA and Montana tax

Tax takes

$10,965

19.2% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$51,112

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

$57,090

Kept after tax

$46,125

Worth in national money

$51,112

State rank

49

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • The nominal figure here is modest. Montana pays healthcare social workers a middle wage of $57,090, 49 of 51 states and about 15.9% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 475 occupations Montana reports figures for, this is number 249.
  • Here is where Montana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $57,090 you keep $46,125, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $51,112 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $59,510, because the best-paid pull it up.
  • Montana's $57,090 median for healthcare social workers places it 49 of 51 states, about 15.9% 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.
  • In Montana's occupational distribution, healthcare social workers sits at 249 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.
  • After federal, FICA and Montana income tax, retained pay for healthcare social workers on $57,090 is $46,125. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $51,112 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $59,510 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Healthcare Social Workers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$46,330
Half earn under$57,090
Top tenth earn over$77,730
This salary$57,090

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
+$1,927take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Montana$46,125
Take-home in Texas$48,052
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,663

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$59,101
$59,101in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$54,692
Raise you would need+$2,011
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $57,090 as a midpoint for Montana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,330 and the ninetieth is $77,730 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • In Montana the take-home figure of $46,125, from $57,090, 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 249 of 475 occupations here.
  • Two cautions on $51,112, the adjusted value of that $57,090 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 249 of 475 locally.
  • The Montana median of $57,090 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,330 to $77,730. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • Take-home for Montana is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $46,125 from $57,090. 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 249 of 475 locally.
  • This $51,112 adjusted figure, worked from $57,090, 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 249 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 249 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 $59,510, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $46,330 at the bottom tenth to $77,730 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 $51,112.

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 $46,125 of this wage survives to your account.

Can I compare this job across every state?

This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.

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 $59,510. 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 ($46,330 to $77,730) 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 $51,112 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 $46,125 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.

Is this occupation's state coverage complete?

State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.