Montana prevailing wage
State law, federal determinations, and how to find the rate that applies
- Montana has its own prevailing-wage law (Mont. Code Ann. §§18-2-401 et seq.), applying to public-works contracts over $25,000, administered by Montana Dept. of Labor & Industry, Employment Relations Division.
- The U.S. Department of Labor has 79 active federal Davis-Bacon wage determinations covering 58 Montana counties as of (latest revision date), each setting county rates by trade for federally funded construction.
- Market context: the average private construction worker in Montana earned $1,426/week (≈ $35.65/hour) in Q1 2026, rank #40 of 51 states, per the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages - an industry average, not a prevailing-wage rate.
Covers construction and nonconstruction services contracts of state or local government over $25,000.
How to find the required rate
- State or locally funded project: use the rate schedules from Montana Dept. of Labor & Industry, Employment Relations Division - official Montana prevailing-wage portal.
- Federally funded project: find the county in the Montana determination index and open the official SAM.gov document for your construction type.
- Read the classification line - base rate plus fringe (how to read a determination); compute totals and overtime with the calculator.
Federal determinations at a glance
Building: 40 · Heavy: 14 · Highway: 1 · Residential: 24 - every determination and the counties it covers are listed in the Montana wage-determination index, each with its full rate schedule mirrored. Service contracts: 20 active SCA determinations for Montana.
Recently revised determinations
- MT20260062 (rev 2) - modified , Building
What construction actually pays here
Separate from any required rate: BLS data puts the average private construction wage in Montana at $1,426/week (+4.9% YoY) in Q1 2026 - details and history on Montana construction wages.
Learn the system
What a prevailing wage is · The Davis-Bacon Act · Certified payroll · Fringe calculator
Data on this page is from U.S. government public-domain sources - free to reuse with credit and a link to prevailingwageindex.com.