Physical Therapist Assistants in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,331
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$12,319
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,773
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
$62,650
Kept after tax
$50,331
Worth in national money
$55,773
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Montana pays physical therapist assistants a middle wage of $62,650, 37 of 51 states and about 8.38% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Physical therapist assistants ranks 179 among 475 occupations Montana publishes pay for.
- Here is where Montana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $62,650 you keep $50,331, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $55,773 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $65,320, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Montana's $62,650 median for physical therapist assistants places it 37 of 51 states, about 8.38% 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.
- Position 179 of 475 in Montana places physical therapist assistants in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After federal, FICA and Montana income tax, retained pay for physical therapist assistants on $62,650 is $50,331. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $55,773 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 $65,320 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,310 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,650 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,990 |
| This salary | $62,650 |
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 | $50,331 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,519 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,727 |
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 | $59,927 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,088 |
| 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 physical therapist assistants in Montana earn under $62,650 and half over. The published range runs $52,310 at the tenth percentile to $77,990 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $50,331 take-home in Montana comes from $62,650. 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 179 of 475.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $55,773 uses one figure for the whole of Montana. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 475 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 179.
- Figures are distribution medians for physical therapist assistants in Montana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $52,310 to $77,990; 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 $50,331, from $62,650, 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 179 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $55,773, worked from $62,650, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Montana address, on work sitting at 179 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 $65,320 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $52,310 and the top tenth $77,990, so most people doing this work in Montana sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $55,773.
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, $50,331 remains.
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 $65,320. 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 ($52,310 to $77,990) 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 $55,773 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 $50,331 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.