Recognize real gains
The state reports that inflation-adjusted wages grew an average of 1.6% annually since 2022. That is progress worth recognizing, but a statewide average does not describe every household’s budget.
Cost of Living
A living.Not justgetting by.
A paycheck should do more than get us to the next bill. It should give our families a chance to build a life here.
Different families.
Different pressures.
There is no single price tag for living in Montana. A person living alone, a single parent and a family with two earners face very different costs.
This model asks what it takes to cover basic needs, including taxes. It does not include a cushion for savings or retirement. Covering the budget is a starting point, not a guarantee of financial security.
Compare the same household types across Montana, Yellowstone County and Gallatin County. These two counties illustrate regional differences, not all 56 counties.
Yellowstone County · MIT 2026 basic-needs model
Source: MIT Living Wage Calculator, updated Feb. 15, 2026: Yellowstone County, Montana and Gallatin County. These are modeled budgets, not observed spending or current price quotes.
Why the one-earner budget is lower
MIT assumes the nonworking adult provides all child care without an additional cash payment. That does not mean staying home has no economic cost: this chart does not value unpaid work or calculate forgone earnings and career progression.
The MIT methodology adjusts its source data to December 2025 prices. Savings, retirement and other long-term investments are outside the model.
Not one bill.
All of them.
For two working adults and two children in Yellowstone County, the model puts basic household expenses at about $8,785 a month after taxes.
Child care is the largest line. But transportation, groceries, medical care and the other necessities do not disappear when rent is due. Looking at one bill in isolation misses the pressure of paying all of them.
This is a consistent benchmark for one household type. Your family’s arrangements, benefits and actual costs may be different.
- Monthly household expenses
- $8,785
- Plus modeled monthly taxes
- $1,359
- Monthly income before taxes
- $10,144
Yellowstone County · Two working adults, two children
Source: MIT, Yellowstone County, Feb. 15, 2026. Monthly figures divide annual values by 12; labels are rounded. Bar lengths use unrounded values. Taxes are shown separately, not included in these eight bars.
What is included, and what isn’t
Housing is a rental benchmark including utilities, not a new-home mortgage payment. Utilities are not added again. Food covers meals prepared at home. The model includes civic participation and other necessities, so it is a basic-needs standard rather than bare survival.
Published annual expenses total $105,424 after taxes; modeled taxes are $16,307, giving $121,731 before taxes. MIT’s rounded annual component values sum to $1 more than its published after-tax total. We preserve the published totals. Monthly rounding can also produce small differences.
There is no savings or retirement cushion. See the MIT methodology for definitions and exclusions.
Two paychecks.
Still a gap.
Two adults each earning $25 an hour, working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, bring in $104,000 before taxes. That is $17,731 below the Yellowstone family benchmark.
This does not tell us how many families fall short. It shows why two full-time jobs do not automatically make a particular family budget work.
Move the hourly wage to test this fixed scenario. Both adults earn the selected wage; the household remains two working adults with two children in Yellowstone County.
$17,731below the annual
modeled budget
modeled budget
Illustration: hourly wage × 2 adults × 2,080 hours. The budget benchmark stays fixed; taxes and benefits are not recalculated as wages change. A surplus above the benchmark is not a calculation of spendable income.
Calculation against the MIT 2026 Yellowstone County model. Actual outcomes depend on paid hours, child care, housing, benefits, taxes and other needs. This is not a personal budget or tax calculator.
The cost of
going without.
Affordability is not just about the balance at the end of the month. It can determine whether someone gets medical care when they need it.
In 2024, 12% of Montana adults reported a time in the previous year when they needed to see a doctor but could not because of cost.
That is a measured barrier to care. It does not, by itself, quantify the later health or financial consequences.
CDC survey measure · 2024
12%
needed a doctor, but cost stood in the way
Source: America’s Health Rankings, using CDC’s 2024 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Self-reported experience among adults, referring to the prior 12 months; not a share of families or a September 2026 snapshot.
Progress matters.
So does what’s left.
The goal is not to pretend nothing is improving. It is to ask whether improvements are reaching families after the necessities are paid for.
Lower inflation isn’t a lower bill
A price can stop rising and still be much higher than it used to be. Slower growth helps, but families still have to afford the level where costs settle.
For example, a hypothetical $1,000 bill that rises to $1,400 stays $400 higher even if it stops increasing.
Compare like with like
A single worker’s wage is not a whole household’s income. A new buyer’s mortgage is not an existing renter’s payment. We need comparisons that fit the family and the costs being measured.
That is why the two-paycheck example uses an explicit household and work schedule, not the income of all households mixed together.
Lower everyday costs.
Show real results.
We’re fighting for a Montana where work can support a stable life. That means judging proposals by what families can actually afford and access, not just by the size of an announcement.
Look at the whole household
Count rent, care, utilities, transportation, food and medical costs together. A saving on one bill is not enough if the cost simply moves somewhere else.
Turn help into access
Measure homes people can actually live in and staffed child care places families can use. Eligibility, permits and funding announcements are not the same as results.
Show who benefits
Ask what a proposal means for renters, homeowners, single parents and rural and tribal communities. Be clear about who is helped, who is excluded and who pays.
Measure what families keep
Track net bills, earnings and the room left for emergencies and the future. Distinguish lasting improvements from a temporary rebate or a cost passed to someone else.
These are our standards for evaluating and developing policy, not claims that a particular proposal has already delivered savings. Implementation, tradeoffs and fiscal details still matter.
More than getting by.
A future worth staying for.
We should be able to raise our families here without giving up on the future we want for them. The gaps are real. So is our responsibility to work on closing them.
Back to Our FightEvidence note: Budget estimates, health surveys and wage trends refer to different periods and populations. No single chart measures every household or establishes the effect of a law. Source dates and assumptions are included beside each comparison. Evidence reviewed September 21, 2026.