Average salary in Chicago in 2026, and what actually counts as good
A typical job in the Chicago metro pays $54,720 a year, the lowest of the US cities in our series. Here is what six senior jobs pay in Chicago, what puts you in the top quarter and the top 10%, what Illinois's flat tax takes, and why a one-bedroom eats the same share of pay as in Seattle.
Michael Vavilov
Product leader with a track record of launching AI-driven HR and talent platforms that scale rapidly, boost user acquisition, and create measurable operational efficiencies.
A typical job in the Chicago metro pays $54,720 a year before tax. $86,670 puts you in the top quarter, and $130,790 in the top 10%.
Those figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, the latest release. They cover every job in the metro, from the Loop and O'Hare to Naperville, Joliet and Waukegan, and across the state line to Gary and Hammond in Indiana. The national median for all jobs is $50,980, so the typical Chicago salary is only about 7% higher. Among the 36 US metros with more than a million jobs, Chicago ranks 15th, and it has the lowest median of the four US cities we have covered so far.
Chicago has a reputation as the affordable big city, and its rents are far below the coasts. Its pay is lower too, by about the same proportion. On the typical salary a one-bedroom takes 46% of take-home pay, the same share it takes in Seattle, and Illinois's flat income tax takes slightly more from that salary than California or Minnesota would. This guide starts with what specific jobs pay, then shows where any salary sits on the Chicago scale, what tax and rent leave from it, and how Chicago compares with Seattle, Minneapolis and San Diego.
What six senior jobs pay in Chicago
We ran six realistic resumes through PayScope's market value model with the location set to Chicago. Each belongs to a fictional professional with ten to twelve years of experience, at senior level. The roles follow what the metro is known for: consulting, trading and asset management, consumer brands, freight and distribution, and a large hospital sector. Only one is a software job. PayScope reads the skills and experience in a resume and compares them with people and job openings in the area, so the ranges below describe what the market pays for that kind of profile in Chicago right now.
| Role (senior level) | Bottom 25% | Median | Top 25% | Top 10% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Management consultant, operations strategy | $152K | $175K | $198K | $230K |
| Software engineer, trading systems | $138K | $158K | $182K | $210K |
| Supply chain manager, distribution | $130K | $148K | $172K | $198K |
| Brand manager, consumer packaged goods | $128K | $146K | $168K | $192K |
| Investment analyst, asset management | $115K | $135K | $155K | $185K |
| Registered nurse, cardiac ICU | $91K | $104K | $118K | $133K |
Source: PayScope market value model, one resume per role, senior level, location Chicago, IL, run on October 30, 2026. Figures in thousands, as the model displays them.
Five of the six medians sit between $135,000 and $175,000, and the top one is the consultant's. A senior manager at an operations consulting firm comes out at $175,000, ahead of the engineer who builds trading systems at $158,000. In Seattle a different senior software resume came out at $190,000, so tech pays noticeably less here even at senior level. For how software pay rises from entry to lead level nationally, see our software engineer salary guide.
The nurse is the low outlier. A senior cardiac ICU nurse comes out at $104,000, close to the BLS median for all registered nurses in the Chicago metro ($100,490) and well below the $128,000 the model gave a senior ICU nurse in Seattle. Within each role the spread is wide: the bottom and top quarters of the consultant's range are $46,000 apart, and most of that gap comes from skills and the kind of work on the resume. These are senior roles, which is why every median here is far above the metro's typical $54,720. Earlier in a career, pay for the same jobs is lower.
How pay is spread across the Chicago area
The BLS surveys employers about what they pay and estimates the pay level at each point of the scale, from the lowest-paid tenth of jobs in the metro to the highest. Find your own salary in the table to see where you sit among everyone working here, whatever their job.
| Where you sit | Chicago metro | United States | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom 10% | $34,260 | $31,200 | 9 in 10 jobs pay more |
| Bottom 25% | $38,480 | $37,590 | 3 in 4 jobs pay more |
| Median (typical) | $54,720 | $50,980 | Half pay more, half pay less |
| Top 25% (good) | $86,670 | $80,520 | You out-earn 3 in 4 jobs |
| Top 10% | $130,790 | $128,560 | You out-earn 9 in 10 jobs |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, all occupations. The metro has 4,513,280 jobs in the survey, the third most in the country after New York and Los Angeles. The average (mean) is $73,380, or $35.28 an hour, pulled up by the highest earners, which is why we use the median as "typical".
As a monthly figure, the typical salary is about $4,560 before tax, or $26.31 an hour. Chicago stays close to the national scale all the way up: about $3,700 above it at the median, $6,150 at the top-quarter line and only $2,230 at the top-10% line. Chicago's minimum wage is $17.05 an hour from July 2026, which works out to $35,464 for a full-time year, just above the metro's bottom-10% line. Suburban Cook County's minimum is $15.40 and the Illinois minimum is $15.
The BLS counts jobs by where they are, not where people live, and covers employees only, so the self-employed are left out. It also converts hourly pay to a full-time year of 2,080 hours, so a part-time job shows up at its full-time rate. If you count only people who worked full time all year and live in the metro, the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2024 puts the median at $70,109, and 29.9% of them earned $100,000 or more. On that measure the city of Chicago is no better paid than the metro as a whole: its full-time residents have a median of $70,872.
Why a typical Chicago salary pays more state tax than in California
Illinois taxes income at a flat 4.95%. In 2026 the only allowance is a personal exemption of $2,925, with no standard deduction and no lower rate for lower earnings. California's rates start at 1% and Minnesota's at 5.35%, and both let you deduct more before any tax applies. A flat tax charges a cashier and a trader the same rate, so compared with those states it takes relatively more from modest salaries and less from high ones.
To show what that does to a paycheck, we took the same gross salary and worked out monthly take-home pay for a single person in Chicago, San Diego, Minneapolis and Seattle. Everything else is held equal: 2026 federal income tax and standard deduction, Social Security and Medicare, a 5% pre-tax 401(k), and each state's own payroll levies. Illinois has none of those levies, and the city of Chicago has no income tax on wages.
| Gross salary | Chicago | San Diego | Minneapolis | Seattle | Illinois income tax per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $38,480 (Chicago bottom 25%) | $2,478 | $2,538 | $2,508 | $2,573 | $1,665 |
| $54,720 (Chicago median) | $3,443 | $3,489 | $3,457 | $3,582 | $2,428 |
| $72,610 | $4,484 | $4,487 | $4,466 | $4,673 | $3,270 |
| $86,670 (Chicago top 25%) | $5,208 | $5,157 | $5,164 | $5,435 | $3,931 |
| $130,790 (Chicago top 10%) | $7,474 | $7,223 | $7,349 | $7,823 | $6,006 |
| $200,000 | $11,006 | $10,442 | $10,703 | $11,556 | $9,260 |
Source: PayScope calculation with 2026 IRS brackets, Illinois 4.95% with the 2026 exemption, 2025 California Franchise Tax Board schedules, 2026 Minnesota brackets, FICA, a 5% 401(k), and state payroll levies (California SDI 1.3%; Minnesota Paid Leave 0.44%; Washington PFML 0.81% and WA Cares 0.58%). Health insurance premiums not included.
On the typical $54,720, Illinois takes about $2,430 a year in income tax. On the same salary a San Diego worker pays about $1,870 in state income tax and disability insurance combined, so the Chicago worker keeps about $46 a month less. Illinois takes more than California on every salary below about $73,000, and more than Minnesota below about $63,000. Above those points the order reverses: at the top-10% line of $130,790, a Chicagoan keeps about $250 a month more than someone on the same pay in San Diego.
At the median the difference is small, about 1% of gross pay. It matters because it points the same way as the salary itself. Chicago's typical job pays the least of the four cities, and of the three states that tax income, Illinois treats that typical salary the least gently.
If you live on the Indiana side
The metro includes Lake, Porter, Jasper and Newton counties in Indiana, where the rules differ. Indiana's income tax is a flat 2.95% in 2026, plus a county tax set by where you live: 1.5% in Lake County, which includes Gary and Hammond, and 0.5% in Porter County. Someone who lives and works in Lake County keeps about $13 a month more on the median salary than an Illinois resident.
Commuting into Illinois changes that. Illinois and Indiana have no reciprocal tax agreement, so an Indiana resident who works in Chicago pays Illinois's 4.95% on those wages. Indiana credits that against its own state tax, but not against the county tax, which is still owed. On the median salary, a Lake County resident who commutes to Chicago takes home about $3,380 a month, roughly $64 less than a coworker who lives in Illinois.
Is Chicago expensive to live in on a typical salary?
For rent we use HUD's Fair Market Rents for 2026 for the six Illinois counties at the core of the metro (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will): $1,581 a month for a one-bedroom and $1,781 for a two-bedroom, utilities included, both about 1% above 2025. HUD sets these at the 40th percentile of what recent movers pay, so they describe an ordinary apartment, not a new building in the West Loop.
| Salary | Where it sits | Take-home per month | One-bedroom ($1,581) as share of take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| $38,480 | Bottom 25% | $2,478 | 64% |
| $50,000 | Below median | $3,162 | 50% |
| $54,720 | Median | $3,443 | 46% |
| $70,000 | Above median | $4,350 | 36% |
| $86,670 | Top 25% | $5,208 | 30% |
| $130,790 | Top 10% | $7,474 | 21% |
Source: PayScope calculation with 2026 IRS brackets, Illinois income tax, FICA and a 5% 401(k); rent from HUD FY2026 Fair Market Rents, Chicago-Joliet-Naperville area. Health insurance not included.
On the typical $54,720, a single person renting a one-bedroom alone spends 46% of take-home on rent and has about $1,860 a month left for everything else. Rent falls to 30% of take-home at about $88,000, just above the top-quarter line.
The metro figure hides a wide range. HUD's ZIP-code figures put a one-bedroom at $2,370 in the Loop, River North, the West Loop, Lincoln Park and Lakeview, $1,970 in Logan Square and $1,920 around Hyde Park and Kenwood, against $1,330 in Pilsen and Bridgeport and about $1,200 in much of the South and Southwest Sides. In the suburbs it runs from about $2,100 in Naperville and Evanston to $1,380 in Joliet and $1,370 in Waukegan.
Sharing changes the numbers quickly. Half of a two-bedroom costs about $890, which is 26% of take-home on the typical salary and falls under 30% at about $47,000. A couple who both earn the metro median and file jointly take home about $6,885 a month, and a two-bedroom takes 26% of that. On the Indiana side HUD's one-bedroom is $1,082, about 31% of take-home on the typical salary, though it rose almost 10% from 2025.
A practical answer for Chicago: to rent a one-bedroom alone and keep it near 30% of take-home, you need about $88,000, a top-quarter salary. With a roommate or a partner, the typical $54,720 already gets there.
Chicago vs Seattle, Minneapolis and San Diego after tax and rent
Put the four metros side by side and Chicago's reputation for affordability needs a qualifier.
| Metro | Typical salary | Take-home per month | One-bedroom rent | Rent as share of take-home | Left after rent | Salary that brings rent to 30% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $72,610 | $4,673 | $2,146 | 46% | $2,527 | ~$118,000 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | $59,320 | $3,722 | $1,405 | 38% | $2,317 | ~$77,000 |
| Chicago | $54,720 | $3,443 | $1,581 | 46% | $1,862 | ~$88,000 |
| San Diego | $58,690 | $3,717 | $2,459 | 66% | $1,258 | ~$152,500 |
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 medians; PayScope take-home calculation for a single filer with a 5% 401(k) and each state's taxes and payroll levies; HUD FY2026 Fair Market Rents for each metro's core area.
Chicago and Seattle land on the same share: a one-bedroom takes 46% of the typical paycheck in both. Seattle's rent is $565 a month higher, and its typical take-home pay is higher by about $1,230. In dollars, the typical Chicago worker keeps about $1,860 after rent, around $665 less than in Seattle and $455 less than in Minneapolis. Only San Diego, where a one-bedroom takes two thirds of the typical paycheck, leaves less.
The salary that brings a one-bedroom down to 30% of take-home is about $77,000 in Minneapolis, $88,000 in Chicago, $118,000 in Seattle and $152,500 in San Diego. In Chicago and Seattle that point sits just above the local top-quarter line, so in both cities living alone comfortably takes a salary that three in four jobs do not pay.
Jobs that pay a good salary in Chicago
If "good" means the top quarter of all jobs, these are the large occupations whose typical pay in the Chicago metro is above the $86,670 line. The figures are BLS medians across all experience levels, so a senior person in these jobs usually earns more.
| Occupation | Jobs in the metro | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| General and operations managers | 122,930 | $109,390 |
| Registered nurses | 100,240 | $100,490 |
| Financial managers | 41,590 | $168,810 |
| Software developers | 40,370 | $134,380 |
| Management analysts | 37,510 | $105,090 |
| Secondary school teachers | 32,790 | $98,970 |
| Lawyers | 28,320 | $165,660 |
| Sales managers | 25,390 | $158,690 |
| Computer and information systems managers | 24,950 | $173,760 |
| Securities and financial services sales agents | 24,080 | $100,760 |
| Police and sheriff's patrol officers | 22,680 | $107,810 |
| Project management specialists | 21,040 | $105,320 |
| Electricians | 17,720 | $102,350 |
| Marketing managers | 17,400 | $165,340 |
| Financial and investment analysts | 17,150 | $101,750 |
| Airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers | 6,360 | $293,490 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro, occupations with at least 5,000 jobs (selection).
Finance is the metro's clearest specialty. Financial managers, financial analysts and securities sales agents are each about 1.6 to 1.7 times as common here as in the national workforce, and marketing and HR managers 1.5 to 1.7 times. Police patrol officers clear the line with a median of $107,810, and so do skilled trades: electricians at $102,350 and plumbers and pipefitters at $103,380, about the same as in Seattle.
Chicago's largest single occupation sits at the other end of the scale: 157,920 freight, stock and material movers with a median of $40,550, almost twice their share of jobs nationally. Warehouses and rail yards employ far more people here than trading floors do, which is a large part of why the metro median is low. The same job also tends to pay less than on the West Coast. The median registered nurse earns $100,490 in Chicago against $128,260 in Seattle, and the median software developer $134,380 against $167,280.
Chicago, Naperville and the rest of the metro
The BLS does not split its figures below the metro, but the Census Bureau's survey of residents does. Among people who worked full time all year in 2024, here is the median by the city they live in.
| City | Median | Margin of error |
|---|---|---|
| Naperville | $102,314 | ±$4,892 |
| Arlington Heights | $91,392 | ±$6,893 |
| Evanston | $81,825 | ±$8,044 |
| Schaumburg | $72,155 | ±$6,604 |
| Chicago (city) | $70,872 | ±$786 |
| Metro as a whole | $70,109 | ±$481 |
| Joliet | $60,247 | ±$4,468 |
| Aurora | $58,957 | ±$5,010 |
| Elgin | $57,293 | ±$6,582 |
| Gary, IN | $50,336 | ±$4,834 |
| Waukegan | $46,383 | ±$1,434 |
| Hammond, IN | $45,452 | ±$4,534 |
| Cicero | $43,557 | ±$3,971 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table S2001, in 2024 dollars. Smaller places such as Oak Park, Skokie, Bolingbrook and Wheaton are not included here.
Naperville is the only large city in the metro where the typical full-time worker earns more than $100,000, and more than half of its full-time residents do. Arlington Heights and Evanston follow. The city of Chicago sits almost exactly at the metro figure, with a tight margin because it is so large. The older industrial cities are at the bottom: Cicero, Hammond, Waukegan and Gary are all between about $44,000 and $50,000, while Joliet, Aurora and Elgin are around $57,000 to $60,000. These figures describe who lives in each city, not what employers there pay, since many people commute into the Loop, O'Hare and the northwest suburbs.
Average salary in Illinois
Most of Illinois's jobs are in the Chicago area. For the whole state the median job pays $51,960, the top quarter starts at $83,060 and the top 10% at $127,770, across 6,098,130 jobs in the BLS survey. Among people who worked full time all year, the Census Bureau puts the state median at $65,318 for 2024, and 26.5% of them earned $100,000 or more. Both are below the Chicago metro because they include Springfield, Peoria, Rockford, the Metro East and the rural south. Indiana's state median is lower still: $47,860 by the BLS and $57,198 for full-time workers.
Why your number may differ from the average
The metro median tells you where the middle of the whole job market sits. It says very little about what you should be paid.
Your role and level set the range, and in Chicago they put every senior profile we tested at $104,000 or more at the median. Your specific skills then decide whether you sit in the bottom or top quarter of your own role, which for the senior consultant is the difference between $152,000 and $198,000. That gap is about 80 times what Illinois's flat tax costs a typical worker compared with California.
The useful comparison is with people doing your job, at your level, in this metro. Upload your resume to PayScope and you get that comparison: a Chicago range for your profile and where your current pay sits inside it.
FAQ
What is considered a good salary in Chicago?
On the job scale, $86,670 puts you in the top quarter of jobs in the Chicago metro and $130,790 in the top 10% (BLS, May 2025). For a single person renting a one-bedroom alone, rent falls to 30% of take-home at about $88,000, so both measures point to roughly the same number. With a roommate, the typical salary of $54,720 already keeps your half of a two-bedroom near 26%.
Is $100,000 a good salary in Chicago?
Yes. $100,000 is above the top-quarter line of $86,670 and far above the metro median of $54,720. A single filer takes home about $5,890 a month after federal tax, Illinois's 4.95% income tax, FICA and a 5% 401(k). A typical one-bedroom at $1,581 takes about 27% of that, so living alone is comfortable.
Is $90,000 a good salary in Chicago?
Yes. It is just above the top-quarter line, so it out-earns about three in four jobs in the metro. A single filer takes home about $5,380 a month, and a typical one-bedroom takes 29% of it, right at the usual 30% guideline.
What is a middle-class salary in Chicago?
There is no official definition. If you take the middle half of all jobs in the metro, it runs from $38,480 (the bottom-quarter line) to $86,670 (the top-quarter line), with $54,720 in the middle (BLS, May 2025). Definitions based on household income come out higher, because many households have two earners.
How much is Illinois state income tax?
A flat 4.95% of income above a personal exemption of $2,925 in 2026, with no standard deduction. Chicago has no city income tax, and Illinois takes no state payroll levies from employees. On the typical $54,720 salary with a 5% 401(k), Illinois income tax comes to about $2,430 a year.
What is the average salary in Chicago per month and per hour?
The typical (median) job in the Chicago metro pays $54,720 a year, which is about $4,560 a month or $26.31 an hour before tax. After federal and Illinois income tax, FICA and a 5% 401(k), a single filer takes home about $3,440 a month. The mean is higher, $73,380 a year or $35.28 an hour, because high earners pull it up.
Why do different websites give different average salaries for Chicago?
They measure different things. For jobs in the metro in May 2025, the BLS median is $54,720 and the mean is $73,380 ($35.28 an hour). For full-time, year-round workers who live in the metro, the Census median for 2024 is $70,109, and for the city of Chicago alone it is $70,872. Salary sites use their own data and land between about $65,000 and $87,000.
