Food Servers, Nonrestaurant Salary

It’s a stretch — at the median salary of $32K, rent takes 50.2% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,129/month. The 30% guideline puts the comfortable ceiling at roughly $700/month in rent — so roommates or a 1-bedroom would ease the math significantly.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new food servers, nonrestaurants typically earn — is $23K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $1,381/month. At HUD’s $1,129/month FMR, rent would take 82% of that take-home — above the 30% guideline, so a 1-bedroom or shared housing is likely necessary starting out.

Pay here is roughly in line with the national average — $32K locally vs. $35K nationally, a 9% difference.

Montana pays $32K median vs. the U.S. average of $35K — that’s -9%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 97), the purchasing-power equivalent is $33K — below the national median.

The median is $32,090 a year, that works out to about $15 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $23,010, and experienced food servers, nonrestaurants can clear $38,210. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $2,250/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,129/month, which eats 50.2% of your paycheck. That's above the 30% rule of thumb, housing will be a stretch at the median salary, though you can manage with roommates or a smaller place.

Montana has a Regional Price Parity of 97 (100 is the national average). That's below average, your money stretches further here than the raw salary number suggests. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median food servers, nonrestaurant salary is worth about $33,082 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.