BCBA & RBT Salary in Montana (2026)
From live job-posting data + Medicaid rate records. Updated July 2026.
This page is for ABA practice owners in Montana. It shows what the market pays right now, who is hiring, and why. Use it to set offers that keep your team.
Posting-Disclosed Pay
| Role | Median (annualized) | Range | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| BCBA | $94,000 | $45,035 – $156,000 | national posting data (767 postings) |
| RBT | $42,986 | $20,800 – $69,680 | national posting data (1945 postings) |
Pay data comes from public LinkedIn postings that state a number. Hourly rates are annualized at 2,080 hours. Small samples are supplemented with national data.
Who Is Hiring in Montana
Most active employers (BCBA roles): AWARE Inc., Advanced Therapy Clinic LLC, Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center, Benefis Health System, Lifepoint Health®.
Busiest hiring cities: Great Falls, Billings, Missoula, Helena, Anaconda.
Working as a Behavior Analyst in Montana
Montana has required a state license for behavior analysts since 2017, when SB 193 created the Behavior Analyst (BA) and Assistant Behavior Analyst (ABA) license under the Montana Board of Psychologists. The license is built directly on top of your national BACB certification: you need a current BCBA (or BCaBA for the Assistant license), a clean background check, and a signed attestation that you’ll follow the BACB Ethics Code. There’s no telehealth-only or provisional license listed on the Board’s page, so however you practice, you hold the same license as everyone else in the state.
For pay and mobility, Montana doesn’t spell out a behavior-analyst-specific reciprocity pathway. A general endorsement statute covers DLI-regulated professions (37-1-304, MCA) and allows licensing where another state’s standards are “substantially equivalent,” but the Board’s own behavior-analyst page and application checklist never mention it for this profession. Until that’s confirmed, plan on a full application if you’re relocating to Montana, not a fast-tracked endorsement.
Montana also limits how many trainees one BCBA can supervise. Under ARM 24.189.910(3), a licensed Behavior Analyst may not supervise more than 3 student interns while also supervising behavior technicians or assistant behavior analysts, or more than 7 if not. That ceiling caps how far one BCBA can stretch a training pipeline, which matters for how a Montana practice plans growth.
One more cost worth knowing: Montana’s State Loan Repayment Program offers up to $50,000 for licensees who commit two years full-time to a shortage-area site. It lists 16 eligible disciplines, including psychologists, LCSWs, and nurse practitioners — but BCBAs are not on that list, so this incentive isn’t available to behavior analysts the way it is for other Montana mental health licensees.
RBT vs. BT in Montana
Montana licenses behavior technicians and student interns individually with the Board of Psychologists, not just BCBA/BCaBA-level clinicians. Every BT or intern must be named on a written supervision agreement filed by their supervising BA, with a $25 fee per new supervision relationship, and the BA must report it to the Board within 5 business days of it starting. That’s an added compliance step Montana practices carry that not every state requires.
The credential still matters most for what gets billed. Montana Medicaid’s ABA manual only recognizes the BACB RBT (and BCaBA) credential for reimbursable technician-level services — there’s no separate billing category for a generic, Board-registered-but-not-BACB-certified technician. For job seekers, the RBT certification is real leverage: it’s what makes your hours billable under a supervising BCBA’s NPI, not just Board registration alone. For owners, it means your staffing model needs BACB-certified RBTs for any Medicaid caseload, plus the paperwork of filing and updating supervision agreements for every technician and intern on staff.
Common Questions
How much does a BCBA make in Montana?
Few Montana postings disclose pay. Nationally, postings that do show a median around $94,000 per year.
Is it hard to hire BCBAs in Montana?
A LinkedIn search for BCBA roles in Montana returns 436 results from the past month (including related roles). The busiest hiring markets are Great Falls, Billings, Missoula, Helena, Anaconda.
What drives BCBA pay in a state?
Three things: Medicaid and commercial reimbursement rates, how many certified analysts live in the state, and demand from autism prevalence and insurance mandates.
Compare neighboring states: Idaho · Wyoming · North Dakota · South Dakota