Museum Technicians and Conservators in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,005
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$7,385
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,789
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
$42,390
Kept after tax
$35,005
Worth in national money
$38,789
State rank
34
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Montana. The middle earner gets $42,390. That is 34 of 45 states, and about 17.59% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 475 occupations Montana publishes, this job lands at 381. 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 $42,390 you keep $35,005 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $38,789 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $44,250, since top earners drag the number up.
- For museum technicians and conservators, Montana sits in the lower band at $42,390, ranking 34 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 17.59%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Montana, this work ranks 381 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 $35,005 after the full tax stack, from $42,390. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,789 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $44,250 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Museum Technicians and Conservators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,390 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,400 |
| This salary | $42,390 |
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 | $35,005 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,240 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,495 |
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 | $40,852 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,808 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of museum technicians and conservators in Montana earn under $42,390 and half over. The published range runs $31,470 at the tenth percentile to $62,400 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $35,005 take-home in Montana comes from $42,390. 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 381 of 475.
- One number stands for prices across all of Montana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,789, the adjusted value of that $42,390 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 381 of 475 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for museum technicians and conservators in Montana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,470 to $62,400; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $35,005, from $42,390, 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 381 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 45 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Montana, so $38,789 — the adjusted value of that $42,390 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 381 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 $44,250, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $31,470, the highest tenth $62,400, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $38,789 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $35,005 of this wage survives to your account.
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 45 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 $44,250. 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 ($31,470) and the ninetieth ($62,400) 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 $38,789 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 $35,005 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.