Closing the Gap: Employer Strategies for the Mountain West's Rising Cost of Living

The Mountain division spans eight states in the heart of the American West—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Mojave Desert. In this fifth post in our regional analysis series, we examine how costs and wages have shifted across the Mountain division since 2021, and what those trends mean for families and the employers navigating them.

Family-sustaining costs grew divisionwide, especially in Montana

The Mountain division has historically been cheaper than its Pacific neighbors, but it is still an expensive place to raise a family. At $29.57 per hour, the 2026 family-sustaining wage for a household of two working adults and two children is the fourth-highest of any division, trailing only New England, the Pacific, and the Middle Atlantic.

Between 2021 and 2026, the cost of supporting a family rose throughout the division. On average, counties saw annual budgets for a family of four grow by almost $28,000, a 29.4% increase. Cost growth was broadly shared across states, with Montana seeing the steepest five-year increase at 41.9%, compared to a range of 25–36% in the other states.

Housing cost pressures climbed division-wide, but Idaho and Montana felt the pinch everywhere

Family-sustaining cost growth in the division traces back to housing. Rental housing costs for a family of four rose 44.8% between 2021 and 2026, the second-fastest increase of any division. Only the South Atlantic division (45.5%) saw faster housing cost growth, and the Mountain division far outpaced its neighbors in the Pacific (32.1%).

Housing cost pressures were most acute in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah, the four states with the fastest housing cost growth in the division and the four with the fastest-growing populations in the country. As demand for housing rose, housing supply in Montana, Idaho, and Utah struggled to keep pace.

Beyond housing, states’ experiences diverged sharply on childcare and health care. Childcare costs rose 56% in Montana—more than double the division’s average growth rate—to $25,822 a year, as federal pandemic-era childcare support ended. Meanwhile, health care costs in both Idaho and Montana grew at nearly twice the division rate.

The local patterns behind cost growth

These division- and state-level numbers, however, obscure wide variation in cost growth at the county level. In a previous post, we identified six cost pressure typologies across all 3,144 U.S. counties. 

Approximately a third of counties are high-cost locations where both housing and childcare costs continue to grow, the bulk of which are concentrated in Montana, Utah, and Colorado. Close to a quarter are smaller communities—mostly in Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming—where costs grew steadily across every category. And about a fifth are metro and suburban areas where housing costs appear to have peaked, including the counties around Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Boise. The remaining counties are split almost evenly. Roughly one in ten are smaller communities—mostly in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana—that absorbed massive childcare cost increases. The final tenth are New Mexico counties where childcare pressure is easing but housing costs are still climbing.

What this means for local employers

Zooming into the division's major metros, regional typology patterns come into sharper focus. The division’s fast-growing population centers like Phoenix, AZ, and Boise, ID, have seen costs run away from wages. In Phoenix, family-sustaining costs have grown 17.2 percentage points faster than median wages since 2021, the largest gap among the metros analyzed here. Similarly, wages in Boise have grown faster than in any other metro in our sample (29.7%), but 10.1 percentage points slower than family-sustaining costs (39.8%). In both markets, housing is the largest and fastest-growing expense. 

Deeper into the Southwest, wages in Albuquerque have nearly kept pace with costs, although median wages still fall $4.18 short of a family-sustaining wage. While childcare is the metro’s largest expense, data do not yet reflect New Mexico’s universal childcare program, which took effect in November 2025 and provides no-cost care to families regardless of income. As a result, wage competitiveness is the primary lever to support workers in Phoenix, Boise, and Albuquerque, regardless of where the pressure comes.

In the Rocky Mountain metros of Denver, CO; Fort Collins, CO; and Billings, MT, childcare is the single largest household expense and a leading source of cost growth. In Denver, median wages have grown alongside costs but still fall $4.68 short of a family-sustaining wage. Meanwhile, the cost of supporting a family of four in Fort Collins is almost as high as Denver’s, but pay is lower, leaving the typical worker $6.79 short of a family-sustaining wage, the largest gap of any metro analyzed. Further north, Billings has seen childcare costs rise 46.3% since 2021, leaving median wages $4.38 below a family-sustaining wage. 

In two other growing metros, Las Vegas, NV, and Salt Lake City, UT, workers have lost ground. Las Vegas has the lowest median wage analyzed at $22.44, and even with wages growing in step with costs, fewer workers are earning a family-sustaining wage than in 2021. Salt Lake City’s typical workers are much closer to a family-sustaining wage—just $1.64 short—but the share of workers earning a family-sustaining wage fell from 52.3% to 46.9%. And while childcare is the largest single expense for Las Vegas families, those in Salt Lake City are facing housing and childcare costs that are nearly equal in size. Across all five metros, employers can support workers by pairing competitive wages with benefits aimed at their largest costs, from childcare support and subsidies to expanded healthcare premium contributions.

Reno, NV, and Cheyenne, WY, are two metros where targeted benefits can meaningfully close living wage gaps. In Reno, wages have grown 7.8 percentage points faster than costs since 2021, and the share of workers earning a family-sustaining wage rose 2.6 points, the largest gain in our sample. In Cheyenne, the median wage of $24.78 sits just $0.38 below a family-sustaining wage, the smallest gap of any metro analyzed, and nearly half of workers (49.2%) already earn enough to support a family of four. Childcare is Reno’s largest household expense at $25,064 a year, while Cheyenne is the only metro analyzed where transportation tops the list. In both cases, employer benefits like childcare subsidies and transportation stipends can help workers attain a family-sustaining wage.

Widening gaps, differing pressures

Across the Mountain division, costs have outpaced wages in seven of the ten major metros analyzed, but each market faces its own pressures. In fast-growing markets like Phoenix and Boise, housing has driven recent cost growth, while childcare looms largest in the Colorado, Montana, and Nevada metros. For employers, understanding both where workers fall short and which costs are driving costs up is the foundation for a total rewards strategy that helps workers meet their basic needs.

Explore our data or connect with our team to factor our location-specific Wage Index database into your compensation planning, support workforce stability, and help address risks before they grow.