Carpenters in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,641
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$18,359
23.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,343
Illinois costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Illinois — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$79,000
Kept after tax
$60,641
Worth in national money
$61,343
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Illinois pays carpenters a middle wage of $79,000, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 30.41% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Carpenters ranks 152 among 494 occupations Illinois publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $79,000, tax leaves $60,641, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,343 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $80,320, since top earners drag the number up.
- Illinois's median for carpenters is $79,000, about 30.41% above the national figure and 2 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 152 of 494 in Illinois places carpenters in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for carpenters — median $79,000 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $60,641 retained, $61,343 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $80,320 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Carpenters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $117,660 |
| This salary | $79,000 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Illinois | $60,641 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,407 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,936 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $73,647 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,818 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of carpenters in Illinois earn under $79,000 and half over. The published range runs $39,890 at the tenth percentile to $117,660 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $60,641 take-home in Illinois comes from $79,000. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 152 of 494.
- Two cautions on $61,343, the adjusted value of that $79,000 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Illinois. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 152 of 494 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for carpenters in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,890 to $117,660; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $60,641, from $79,000, assumes a single Illinois filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 152 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 2 of 51 for it.
- This $61,343 adjusted figure, worked from $79,000, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 152 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 152 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $39,890 and the top tenth $117,660 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $61,343.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Illinois adds its own income tax on top — which is why $60,641 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($39,890) and the ninetieth ($117,660) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Illinois's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $61,343 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $60,641 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Illinois income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.