Cashiers in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,330
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$6,160
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,658
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
$34,490
Kept after tax
$28,330
Worth in national money
$28,658
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Illinois pays cashiers a middle wage of $34,490, ranking 17 of 51 states and sitting about 4.9% above the national middle.
- Against 494 occupations Illinois publishes, cashiers lands at 484. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $34,490, tax leaves $28,330, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $28,658 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $34,950, since top earners drag the number up.
- Illinois's median for cashiers is $34,490, about 4.9% above the national figure and 17 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.
- Within Illinois, this work ranks 484 of 494 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for cashiers — median $34,490 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $28,330 retained, $28,658 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $34,950 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cashiers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,490 |
| Top tenth earn over | $38,480 |
| This salary | $34,490 |
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 | $28,330 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,893 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,103 |
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 | $32,545 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,544 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $34,490 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,200 and the ninetieth is $38,480 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $28,330 take-home in Illinois comes from $34,490. 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 484 of 494.
- Two cautions on $28,658, the adjusted value of that $34,490 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 484 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $34,490 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,200 to $38,480. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $28,330, from $34,490, 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 484 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 17 of 51 for it.
- This $28,658 adjusted figure, worked from $34,490, 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 484 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 484 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $31,200 and the top tenth $38,480, so most people doing this work in Illinois sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Illinois sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $28,658 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $28,330 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($31,200 to $38,480) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Illinois rather than a national figure.
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 $28,658 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 $28,330 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.