What is the real (cost-adjusted) Plumber salary in Montana?

After BEA RPP adjustment (regional price parity index 91.0 for Montana), the real-wage equivalent is $85,624 — what the $77,930 nominal salary actually buys. Quartiles in real terms: $63,023 to $96,282.

How are Montana Plumber salaries calculated on this page?

Nominal wages come from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) — annual employer surveys, May 2026 reference period. Real-wage figures use BEA Regional Price Parities (2023 vintage) to adjust for state-level cost of living. No self-report or jobs-board data is mixed in.

Why is the BEA RPP for Montana different from a single CPI number?

BEA splits regional price parity into three components — goods, services, and rents — reweighted to the BEA's national consumption basket. Montana's overall index of 91.0 reflects rents 76.8, services 72.8, and goods 96.5.

Where does Montana rank for Plumber pay?

On nominal BLS wages alone, Montana ranks among the 51 states and DC by median pay. After the BEA cost-of-living adjustment the ordering changes — high-cost states fall, low-cost states rise. Both rankings are shown in the data table on this page.

What are the limits of these Plumber salary numbers?

BLS OES is an employer survey of W-2 wages — it excludes contractor pay, bonuses outside the base wage definition, equity compensation, and tip income. Self-employed practitioners and gig workers are not represented. For occupations with significant non-W-2 income, the BLS figure is a floor, not a complete picture.

Should I negotiate based on the BLS median for Montana?

The BLS median is a calibration anchor, not a ceiling. Use it to validate that an offer is in-band — anything well below the P25 in this state is a flag, anything above the P75 typically requires demonstrable specialty depth, niche credentials, or a high-COL metro within Montana.

When does this data update?

BLS OES releases a new May reference set roughly each spring; we re-run the ETL pipeline within two weeks of release. BEA RPP refreshes annually. The last-synced timestamp at the top of this page reflects the most recent build.

Montana Plumber Salary 2026 — BLS Median $78K, Real Take-Home $86K

TL;DR

Headline Plumber pay in Montana is $77,930. Real take-home, after the state's cost-of-living index, lands at $85,624.
Low BEA RPP (91.0) means the paycheck stretches further than the BLS number suggests; net lift roughly $7,694.
Quartile range $57,360 (bottom 25%) to $87,630 (top 25%); the P10-P90 envelope is $46,400 to $93,960.
Plumber ranking: #11 on the BLS table, #3 once cost of living is in.

Wage breakdown — Montana

Percentile	Nominal (BLS)	Real (BEA RPP-adjusted)
P10 (entry tier)	$46,400	$50,981
P25 (lower quartile)	$57,360	$63,023
P50 (median)	$77,930	$85,624
P75 (upper quartile)	$87,630	$96,282
P90 (top tier)	$93,960	$103,237
Mean	$73,120	$80,339
Employment	1,810 Plumbers in Montana

Cost of living — BEA Regional Price Parity

Component	Montana index (US = 100)
All-items RPP	91.0
Goods	96.5
Services	72.8
Rents	76.8

Montana sits below the national baseline (RPP 91.0), so nominal pay translates to a higher real wage than the BLS median suggests — particularly visible in rents at 76.8.

After-tax take-home — Montana (2024 BLS · 2024 tax year, single filer)

Layer-by-layer take-home math at the BLS median

Layer	Amount	Note
Gross BLS P50 (Plumber)	$77,930	nominal median
Federal income tax	−$8,392	10.8% effective; std deduction $15,750 applied
State income tax	−$3,490	4.7–5.9% (2 brackets)
FICA (SS 6.2% + Medicare 1.45%)	−$5,962	SS capped at $183,600 wage base
Take-home (after-tax)	$60,086	77.1% of gross
Real take-home (RPP-adjusted)	$66,019	÷ (91.0 / 100) BEA cost-of-living

What the Montana state-tax burden means for Plumber take-home

Mid-band state-tax burden at 4.5% effective. Combined with federal and FICA, take-home is $60,086 (77.1% of gross). After the 91.0 RPP, real take-home is $66,019.

Computed from 2026 IRS federal brackets (Rev. Proc. 2025-32), 2026 state DOR brackets, and 2026 FICA rates. Single filer, standard deduction, no other adjustments. See methodology · tax for limitations (married filers, ITM/SALT itemizers, retirement deferrals, HSA, dependent credits, etc.).

National context

Across the United States, BLS reports a national median of $62,970 for Plumbers with mean pay of $69,940 and total employment of 455,940. Montana sits at #11 on nominal pay and #3 on real (cost-adjusted) pay among the 51 states and DC. After cost adjustment, Montana climbs 8 positions — the cost of living is favorable relative to the wage.

Frequently asked questions

What is the real (cost-adjusted) Plumber salary in Montana?: After BEA RPP adjustment (regional price parity index 91.0 for Montana), the real-wage equivalent is $85,624 — what the $77,930 nominal salary actually buys. Quartiles in real terms: $63,023 to $96,282.
How are Montana Plumber salaries calculated on this page?: Nominal wages come from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) — annual employer surveys, May 2026 reference period. Real-wage figures use BEA Regional Price Parities (2023 vintage) to adjust for state-level cost of living. No self-report or jobs-board data is mixed in.
Why is the BEA RPP for Montana different from a single CPI number?: BEA splits regional price parity into three components — goods, services, and rents — reweighted to the BEA's national consumption basket. Montana's overall index of 91.0 reflects rents 76.8, services 72.8, and goods 96.5.
Where does Montana rank for Plumber pay?: On nominal BLS wages alone, Montana ranks among the 51 states and DC by median pay. After the BEA cost-of-living adjustment the ordering changes — high-cost states fall, low-cost states rise. Both rankings are shown in the data table on this page.
What are the limits of these Plumber salary numbers?: BLS OES is an employer survey of W-2 wages — it excludes contractor pay, bonuses outside the base wage definition, equity compensation, and tip income. Self-employed practitioners and gig workers are not represented. For occupations with significant non-W-2 income, the BLS figure is a floor, not a complete picture.
Should I negotiate based on the BLS median for Montana?: The BLS median is a calibration anchor, not a ceiling. Use it to validate that an offer is in-band — anything well below the P25 in this state is a flag, anything above the P75 typically requires demonstrable specialty depth, niche credentials, or a high-COL metro within Montana.
When does this data update?: BLS OES releases a new May reference set roughly each spring; we re-run the ETL pipeline within two weeks of release. BEA RPP refreshes annually. The last-synced timestamp at the top of this page reflects the most recent build.

Sources & methodology

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES), SOC 47-2152, 2024 reference period.
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities, 2023 vintage (all-items, goods, services, rents).
Real-wage figures = nominal BLS wage ÷ (state RPP / 100).
See the methodology page for full computation details and limitations.

By Marcus Liang · Founder & Editor · Last synced 2026-05-07.

Cross-comparison: see how Montana Plumber pay ranks against the other 254 state × occupation pages on the Real Wage Atlas → — four-way ranking by real wage, after-tax take-home, state-tax savings, and cost-of-living arbitrage.