Property Appraisers and Assessors in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,029
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$12,221
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,437
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
$62,250
Kept after tax
$50,029
Worth in national money
$55,437
State rank
31
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Montana pays this job around $62,250 at the midpoint, 31 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 182 among 475 occupations Montana publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $62,250 you keep $50,029 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $55,437 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $65,190, since top earners drag the number up.
- For property appraisers and assessors the Montana median is $62,250, ranking 31 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.
- Position 182 of 475 in Montana places property appraisers and assessors 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.
- Retained pay in Montana is $50,029 after the full tax stack, from $62,250. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $55,437 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $65,190 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Property Appraisers and Assessors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,700 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,250 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,180 |
| This salary | $62,250 |
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 | $50,029 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,198 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,722 |
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 | $59,550 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,083 |
| 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 property appraisers and assessors in Montana earn under $62,250 and half over. The published range runs $46,700 at the tenth percentile to $80,180 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 $50,029, worked from $62,250. 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 182 of 475.
- Two cautions on $55,437, the adjusted value of that $62,250 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 182 of 475 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for property appraisers and assessors in Montana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,700 to $80,180; 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 $50,029, on $62,250 for work ranking 182 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 182 of 475 in the state.
- This $55,437 adjusted figure, worked from $62,250, 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 182 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 182 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 $65,190 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 $46,700 and the top tenth $80,180, so most people doing this work in Montana sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $55,437 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 $50,029 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 50 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 $65,190. 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 ($46,700 to $80,180) 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 $55,437 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 $50,029 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.