Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,394
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$8,476
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,544
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
$46,870
Kept after tax
$38,394
Worth in national money
$42,544
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Montana is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $46,870, ranking 41 of 51 states — about 5.48% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Montana, this sits in the middle: 334 of 475 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $46,870 you keep $38,394 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $42,544 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $49,710, since top earners drag the number up.
- Montana ranks 41 of 51 for maintenance and repair workers, general, with a median of $46,870 — about 5.48% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Maintenance and repair workers, general ranks 334 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.
- Retained pay in Montana is $38,394 after the full tax stack, from $46,870. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $42,544 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $49,710 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,790 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,870 |
| Top tenth earn over | $72,300 |
| This salary | $46,870 |
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 | $38,394 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,840 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,546 |
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 | $45,070 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,870 |
| 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 $46,870. The published range is $34,790 up to $72,300, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Montana's $38,394, worked from $46,870. 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 334 of 475.
- Two cautions on $42,544, the adjusted value of that $46,870 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 334 of 475 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for maintenance and repair workers, general in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,790 to $72,300. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Montana take-home of $38,394, on $46,870 for work ranking 334 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 334 of 475 in the state.
- This $42,544 adjusted figure, worked from $46,870, 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 334 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 334 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 $49,710 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $34,790, the highest tenth $72,300, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $42,544 in national terms.
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 $38,394 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 $49,710. 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 ($34,790) and the ninetieth ($72,300) 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 $42,544 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 $38,394 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.