It’s worth being upfront about a real discrepancy rather than picking whichever number sounds better. Older shift-differential data compiled from job-posting analysis — rather than BLS payroll data — actually ranked Great Falls highest among major Montana cities on a per-shift basis, ahead of both Missoula and Billings, at roughly $2,297 per shift compared to Missoula’s $2,132 and Billings’s $2,124.

That’s a genuinely different ranking than the current BLS averages show, and the honest explanation is methodology, not a market shift. Shift-differential data compiled from job postings tends to capture premium-paying specialty and travel positions disproportionately, since those are the roles most likely to be actively advertised with specific per-shift rates attached — while BLS OEWS data averages across the entire employed RN workforce in an area, including lower-paying and part-time positions that never show up in job postings at all. Neither number is “wrong.” They’re measuring different things, and conflating them is exactly how a Great Falls candidate ends up either overestimating or underestimating what a specific job will actually pay.