Real Estate Sales Agents in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,369
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$17,731
22.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$68,003
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
$79,100
Kept after tax
$61,369
Worth in national money
$68,003
State rank
7
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Montana is one of the better-paying states for real estate sales agents. The middle earner takes $79,100, which ranks 7 of 48 states with published figures. That is about 49.73% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Montana. It ranks 107 out of 475 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $79,100 you keep $61,369 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $68,003 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $89,580, since top earners drag the number up.
- Montana ranks 7 of 48 states publishing a median for real estate sales agents, at $79,100 — about 49.73% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Montana, real estate sales agents ranks 107 of 475 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Retained pay in Montana is $61,369 after the full tax stack, from $79,100. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $68,003 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $89,580 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Real Estate Sales Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $194,630 |
| This salary | $79,100 |
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 | $61,369 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,477 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,652 |
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 | $74,682 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,282 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Montana earn less than $79,100. The published range is $49,010 up to $194,630, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Montana's $61,369, worked from $79,100. 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 107 of 475.
- Two cautions on $68,003, the adjusted value of that $79,100 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 107 of 475 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for real estate sales agents in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,010 to $194,630. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Montana take-home of $61,369, on $79,100 for work ranking 107 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 107 of 475 in the state.
- This $68,003 adjusted figure, worked from $79,100, 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 107 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 107 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 $89,580, 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 $49,010, the highest tenth $194,630, 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 $68,003 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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, $61,369 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 48 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $89,580. 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 ($49,010) and the ninetieth ($194,630) 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 $68,003 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 $61,369 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.