Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,419
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$11,381
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,545
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
$58,800
Kept after tax
$47,419
Worth in national money
$52,545
State rank
32
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Montana pays this job around $58,800 at the midpoint, 32 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Montana, this sits in the middle: 228 of 475 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Montana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $58,800 the take-home is $47,419; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $52,545 would nationally. The average comes to $68,500, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For security and fire alarm systems installers the Montana median is $58,800, ranking 32 of 51 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.
- Security and fire alarm systems installers ranks 228 of 475 occupations in Montana by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for security and fire alarm systems installers in Montana, on $58,800, is $47,419 — equivalent to $52,545 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $68,500 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,410 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,800 |
| Top tenth earn over | $98,370 |
| This salary | $58,800 |
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 | $47,419 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,426 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,683 |
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 | $56,302 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,035 |
| 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 $58,800. The published range is $49,410 up to $98,370, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $47,419 take-home in Montana comes from $58,800. 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 228 of 475.
- One number stands for prices across all of Montana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $52,545, the adjusted value of that $58,800 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 228 of 475 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for security and fire alarm systems installers in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,410 to $98,370. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $47,419, from $58,800, 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 228 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 32 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Montana, so $52,545 — the adjusted value of that $58,800 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 228 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 $68,500, 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 $49,410, the highest tenth $98,370, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $52,545.
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 $47,419 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 $68,500. 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 ($49,410) and the ninetieth ($98,370) 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 $52,545 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 $47,419 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.