Illinois · BLS May 2025

How much does an accountant or auditor make in Illinois?

Also called accountant, CPA, auditor, bookkeeper. SOC 13-2011.

An accountant or auditor in Illinois earns a median of $80,230 a year ($38.57 an hour), about $5,120 a month after federal, state and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 54,930 of these jobs in Illinois in May 2025.

Median pay · Illinois

$80,230A year, or $39 an hour.
Take-home a month$5,120After federal, state and FICA tax at 23.4%
Worth at national prices$80,264Prices here sit at 100 against 100
Against the nation4.1% belowNational median $83,680
What accountants and auditors earn in Illinois, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$54,510$26
25th percentile$66,290$32
MedianHalf earn more, half less$80,230$39
75th percentile$102,270$49
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$131,990$63
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$88,910$43

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in IllinoisBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$80,230
  2. Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$38.57
  3. Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$5,120 a month at an effective rate of 23.4%.$61,445 a year
  4. Worth at national average pricesPrices in Illinois sit at 100 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$80,264
  5. Against the national medianThe national median is $83,680.4.1% below
  6. Jobs countedA concentration of 0.97 against the nation's 1.00.54,930
What we assumed
  • Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
  • OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
  • Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
  • Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details

Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1

What lands in the bank

Tax year 2026 · Interactive

Estimated on the median salary of $80,230 in Illinois, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$80,230
$50,000$135,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$80,230
Net 77%
Fed 11%
IL 5%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$61,445After all taxes
Monthly deposit$5,120Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$2,363Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate23.4%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$8,821 / yr
Illinois state income tax$3,827 / yr
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$6,138 / yr

Run the numbers on your own pay

Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.

What $80,230 is worth in Illinois

Prices in Illinois sit at 100 against a national average of 100, so $80,230 earned here buys what $80,264 buys at national average prices.

  • Rents. 93.9 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
  • Against local households. The median household in Illinois takes in $83,390, so this occupation's median is 0.96 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 3% less concentrated in Illinois than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for accountants or auditors in Illinois

Even the lowest-paid 10% of accountants or auditors in Illinois make at least $54,510 a year.

Common questions

Accountant or Auditor pay in Illinois, answered

How much does an accountant or auditor make in Illinois?

The median wage for accountants or auditors in Illinois is $80,230 a year, or $38.57 an hour.

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.

What is the average accountant or auditor salary in Illinois?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for accountants or auditors in Illinois is $88,910 a year. The median is $80,230.

The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.

What is the hourly pay for an accountant or auditor in Illinois?

The median hourly wage is $38.57. At a full-time year that lines up with about $80,230 a year.

BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.

What is the starting salary for an accountant or auditor in Illinois?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Illinois, the lowest-paid 10% of accountants or auditors earn under $54,510 a year and a quarter earn under $66,290 ($26.21 and $31.87 an hour).

New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.

What is the salary range for an accountant or auditor in Illinois?

The overall salary range for accountants or auditors in Illinois spans from $54,510 for the bottom 10% to $131,990 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $66,290 and $102,270 a year, with the overall median at $80,230.

What is the take-home pay for an accountant or auditor in Illinois?

On the median wage of $80,230, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $61,445 a year, or roughly $5,120 a month.

That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 23.4%.

Illinois takes $3,827 of it in state income tax.

How much does an accountant or auditor make a month in Illinois?

On the median annual salary of $80,230, estimated take-home pay is roughly $5,120 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.

For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $2,363 net.

Do accountants or auditors earn more in Illinois than in the rest of the country?

No. The median in Illinois is 4.1% below the national median of $83,680.

Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Illinois sit at 100 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.

Is $80,230 a good salary in Illinois?

It is 0.96 times the median household income of $83,390. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.

Prices in Illinois run at 100 against a national average of 100, with rents at 93.9, so $80,230 here buys about what $80,264 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid accountants or auditors earn in Illinois?

The top tenth earn $131,990 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $54,510.

Experience, specialty, employer and the part of Illinois someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.

How many accountants or auditors are there in Illinois?

The survey counted 54,930 of these jobs in Illinois for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 3% less concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

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