Print Binding and Finishing Workers in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,337
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$5,883
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,617
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
$36,220
Kept after tax
$30,337
Worth in national money
$33,617
State rank
49
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for print binding and finishing workers is on the low side in Montana. The middle earner gets $36,220. That is 49 of 50 states, and about 14.35% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 475 occupations Montana publishes, print binding and finishing workers lands at 443. 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 $36,220 you keep $30,337 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $33,617 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $39,570, since top earners drag the number up.
- For print binding and finishing workers, Montana sits in the lower band at $36,220, ranking 49 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 14.35%. 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 443 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 $30,337 after the full tax stack, from $36,220. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $33,617 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $39,570 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Print Binding and Finishing Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,730 |
| This salary | $36,220 |
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 | $30,337 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,283 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,425 |
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 | $35,043 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,723 |
| 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 print binding and finishing workers in Montana earn under $36,220 and half over. The published range runs $31,860 at the tenth percentile to $50,730 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Montana's $30,337, worked from $36,220. 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 443 of 475.
- Two cautions on $33,617, the adjusted value of that $36,220 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 443 of 475 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for print binding and finishing workers in Montana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,860 to $50,730; 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.
- The Montana take-home of $30,337, on $36,220 for work ranking 443 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 443 of 475 in the state.
- This $33,617 adjusted figure, worked from $36,220, 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 443 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 443 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 $39,570 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $31,860 at the tenth percentile, $50,730 at the ninetieth.
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 $33,617 in national terms.
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, $30,337 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $39,570. 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 ($31,860 to $50,730) 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 $33,617 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 $30,337 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.