Median pay · Illinois
$62,700A year, or $30 an hour.| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile1 in 10 earn less | $38,650 | $19 |
| 25th percentile | $49,720 | $24 |
| MedianHalf earn more, half less | $62,700 | $30 |
| 75th percentile | $80,690 | $39 |
| 90th percentile1 in 10 earn more | $103,540 | $50 |
| MeanAll pay divided by all jobs | $69,420 | $33 |
Wage survey · BLS May 2025
How we got this
- Median wage in IllinoisBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$62,700
- Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$30.14
- Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$4,133 a month at an effective rate of 20.9%.$49,601 a year
- Worth at national average pricesPrices in Illinois sit at 100 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$62,726
- Against the national medianThe national median is $68,270.8.2% below
- Jobs countedA concentration of 1.03 against the nation's 1.00.5,390
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 · InteractiveEstimated on the median salary of $62,700 in Illinois, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.
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 $62,700 is worth in Illinois
Prices in Illinois sit at 100 against a national average of 100, so $62,700 earned here buys what $62,726 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 0.75 times that, on one income.
- How common the job is here. 3% more concentrated in Illinois than in the country as a whole.
Reading the numbers
What stands out for librarians and media collections specialists in Illinois
The gap between the ends is wide: the 90th percentile ($103,540) is 2.7 times the 10th ($38,650). The survey does not say who sits where in that range. It records no experience, shift or employer.
Common questions
Librarians and Media Collections Specialists pay in Illinois, answered
How much do librarians and media collections specialists make in Illinois?
The median wage for librarians and media collections specialists in Illinois is $62,700 a year, or $30.14 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 Librarians and Media Collections Specialists salary in Illinois?
BLS’s mean (average) wage for librarians and media collections specialists in Illinois is $69,420 a year. The median is $62,700.
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 librarians and media collections specialists in Illinois?
The median hourly wage is $30.14. At a full-time year that lines up with about $62,700 a year.
BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.
What is the starting salary for librarians and media collections specialists 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 librarians and media collections specialists earn under $38,650 a year and a quarter earn under $49,720 ($18.58 and $23.91 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 librarians and media collections specialists in Illinois?
The overall salary range for librarians and media collections specialists in Illinois spans from $38,650 for the bottom 10% to $103,540 for top earners.
The middle 50% earn between $49,720 and $80,690 a year, with the overall median at $62,700.
What is the take-home pay for librarians and media collections specialists in Illinois?
On the median wage of $62,700, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $49,601 a year, or roughly $4,133 a month.
That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 20.9%.
Illinois takes $2,959 of it in state income tax.
How much does librarians and media collections specialists make a month in Illinois?
On the median annual salary of $62,700, estimated take-home pay is roughly $4,133 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 $1,908 net.
Do librarians and media collections specialists earn more in Illinois than in the rest of the country?
No. The median in Illinois is 8.2% below the national median of $68,270.
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 $62,700 a good salary in Illinois?
It is 0.75 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 $62,700 here buys about what $62,726 buys at national average prices.
What do the highest-paid librarians and media collections specialists earn in Illinois?
The top tenth earn $103,540 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $38,650.
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 librarians and media collections specialists are there in Illinois?
The survey counted 5,390 of these jobs in Illinois for May 2025.
That makes the occupation 3% more concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.