Public Safety Telecommunicators in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,976
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$8,664
18.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,190
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
$47,640
Kept after tax
$38,976
Worth in national money
$43,190
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Montana. The middle earner gets $47,640. That is 38 of 51 states, and about 10.18% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 475 occupations Montana reports figures for, this is number 318.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $47,640 you keep $38,976 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,190 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $49,700, since top earners drag the number up.
- For public safety telecommunicators, Montana sits in the lower band at $47,640, ranking 38 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 10.18%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- In Montana's occupational distribution, public safety telecommunicators sits at 318 of 475 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in Montana is $38,976 after the full tax stack, from $47,640. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,190 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $49,700 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Public Safety Telecommunicators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,310 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,640 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,270 |
| This salary | $47,640 |
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 | $38,976 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,459 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,555 |
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 | $45,795 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,881 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,640 as a midpoint for Montana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,310 and the ninetieth is $61,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Montana the take-home figure of $38,976, from $47,640, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 318 of 475 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $43,190, the adjusted value of that $47,640 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 318 of 475 locally.
- The Montana median of $47,640 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,310 to $61,270. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Montana is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $38,976 from $47,640. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 318 of 475 locally.
- This $43,190 adjusted figure, worked from $47,640, 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 318 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 318 of 475 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $49,700, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $39,310 at the bottom tenth to $61,270 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 $43,190 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 $38,976 of this wage survives to your account.
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 $49,700. 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 ($39,310 to $61,270) 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 $43,190 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 $38,976 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.