Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,999
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$12,211
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,404
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
$62,210
Kept after tax
$49,999
Worth in national money
$55,404
State rank
35
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Montana pays this job a middle wage of $62,210, 35 of 51 states and about 3.4% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Montana, this sits in the middle: 183 of 475 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Montana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $62,210 you keep $49,999, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $55,404 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $62,350, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Montana's $62,210 median for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses places it 35 of 51 states, about 3.4% 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.
- Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses ranks 183 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.
- After federal, FICA and Montana income tax, retained pay for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses on $62,210 is $49,999. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $55,404 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 $62,350 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,230 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $74,330 |
| This salary | $62,210 |
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 | $49,999 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,166 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,722 |
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 | $59,513 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,082 |
| 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 $62,210. The published range is $49,230 up to $74,330, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $49,999 take-home in Montana comes from $62,210. 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 183 of 475.
- One number stands for prices across all of Montana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $55,404, the adjusted value of that $62,210 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 183 of 475 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,230 to $74,330. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $49,999, from $62,210, 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 183 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Montana, so $55,404 — the adjusted value of that $62,210 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 183 of 475 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $49,230 at the bottom tenth to $74,330 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 $55,404.
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 $49,999 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($49,230 to $74,330) 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 $55,404 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 $49,999 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.