This Montana Retail Store is Offering Insanely High Starting Wage

I recently booked a trip to southern California for a vacation. While shopping for hotel accommodations, I was blown away at how affordable they were. Compared to the rates we are seeing here in Montana, I was getting a room at a 5-star hotel in San Diego for the same price as a grimy roach motel in Missoula. The price of everything in Montana continues to grow. And wages are having a hard time keeping up. Forcing some Montanans to have to move, just to afford a decent place to live. It is getting out of hand.

Some call it the "pine cone tax" (a.k.a the price you got to pay to live in such a beautiful place.)

Bozeman is a great example of how quickly Montana is growing "too big for its britches." People are simply being priced out of their homes due to rising costs and a cutthroat real estate market. People working average 9 to 5 jobs are no longer able to afford rent in Bozeman. Let alone a mortgage. This is probably why wages for jobs in the Bozeman area seem inflated.

This Saturday 6/16, the Bozeman Walmart is having a giant job fair. Hiring people with wages that don't compare to the market is tough. So Walmart in Bozeman is offering up to $29 per hour for a starting wage. That may sound like a lot of money. But, compared to the cost of living in Bozeman, it kind of evens out.

According to Walmart's post on Facebook

We understand Bozeman is a beautiful place to live, in fact a lot of us were born and raised right here! We know the cost of living has gone up nearly 200% in the past 6 years, that's why your Bozeman Walmart has the 6th highest paid wages for our associates in the entire country. We will continue that fight to combat inflation.