Medical Transcriptionists in Montana

A stethoscope and folded scrubs in a sunlit clinical workspace.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$34,210

after federal, FICA and Montana tax

Tax takes

$7,130

17.2% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$37,909

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

$41,340

Kept after tax

$34,210

Worth in national money

$37,909

State rank

23

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Middling, nationally. Montana pays medical transcriptionists around $41,340 at the midpoint, 23 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
  • Against 475 occupations Montana publishes, medical transcriptionists lands at 397. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $41,340 you keep $34,210 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $37,909 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $43,000, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For medical transcriptionists the Montana median is $41,340, ranking 23 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
  • Within Montana, this work ranks 397 of 475 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
  • Retained pay in Montana is $34,210 after the full tax stack, from $41,340. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $37,909 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $43,000 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Medical Transcriptionists

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$31,470
Half earn under$41,340
Top tenth earn over$56,350
This salary$41,340

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
+$1,186take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Montana$34,210
Take-home in Texas$35,397
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,483

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$43,134
$43,134in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$39,864
Raise you would need+$1,794
Prices in Texas97 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 $41,340. The published range is $31,470 up to $56,350, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • That $34,210 take-home in Montana comes from $41,340. 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 397 of 475.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Montana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,909, the adjusted value of that $41,340 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 397 of 475 in the state.
  • Reported values are medians; for medical transcriptionists in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,470 to $56,350. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • Retained pay of $34,210, from $41,340, 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 397 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 50 for it.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Montana, so $37,909 — the adjusted value of that $41,340 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 397 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 $43,000 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $31,470 at the bottom tenth to $56,350 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Montana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $37,909 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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, $34,210 remains.

Why is this job missing from some states?

The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.

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 $43,000. 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 ($31,470 to $56,350) 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 $37,909 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 $34,210 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.