# Montana — Workers' compensation waiting periods and retroactive thresholds by US state

For Montana, waiting period (days) is 4 days or 32 hours, whichever is less; retroactive trigger (days) is 21 days; how days are counted is The worker must be totally disabled and unable to work. Compensation may not be paid for the first 32 hours or 4 days of loss of wages, whichever is less. A worker is eligible for compensation starting with the 5th day; statute or rule citation is Mont. Code Ann. § 39-71-736, recorded from its source on 2026-08-17.

- **State:** Montana _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Waiting period (days):** 4 days or 32 hours, whichever is less
- **Retroactive trigger (days):** 21 days
- **How days are counted:** The worker must be totally disabled and unable to work. Compensation may not be paid for the first 32 hours or 4 days of loss of wages, whichever is less. A worker is eligible for compensation starting with the 5th day. _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Statute or rule citation:** Mont. Code Ann. § 39-71-736 _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_

## What the source says

> compensation may not be paid for the first 32 hours or 4 days of loss of wages, whichever is less, that the worker is totally disabled and unable to work because of an injury. A worker is eligible for compensation starting with the 5th day.

## Source

- https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0390/chapter_0710/part_0070/section_0360/0390-0710-0070-0360.html

Last verified: 2026-08-17. Review by: 2027-08-17.
Part of [Workers' compensation waiting periods and retroactive thresholds by US state](https://referencesource.org/wc-waiting-periods-by-state/).