Construction and Building Inspectors in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,209
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$18,131
23.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,907
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
$78,340
Kept after tax
$60,209
Worth in national money
$60,907
State rank
14
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for construction and building inspectors is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $78,340, putting the state 14 of 51 — about 4.89% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Illinois, this sits in the middle: 156 of 494 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $78,340 the take-home is $60,209, which is worth about $60,907 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $80,320, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For construction and building inspectors, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $78,340, ranking 14 of 51 and running about 4.89% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Construction and building inspectors ranks 156 of 494 occupations in Illinois by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Illinois's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for construction and building inspectors on its $78,340 median: $60,209 retained after tax becomes $60,907 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $80,320 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Construction and Building Inspectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,340 |
| Top tenth earn over | $119,650 |
| This salary | $78,340 |
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 | $60,209 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,942 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,895 |
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 | $73,034 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,761 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $78,340 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,600 and the ninetieth is $119,650 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Illinois's $60,209, worked from $78,340. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 156 of 494.
- Two cautions on $60,907, the adjusted value of that $78,340 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 156 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $78,340 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,600 to $119,650. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Illinois take-home of $60,209, on $78,340 for work ranking 156 of 494 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 156 of 494 in the state.
- This $60,907 adjusted figure, worked from $78,340, 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 156 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 156 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $47,600, the highest tenth $119,650, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Illinois is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $60,907 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Illinois then takes its own share, leaving $60,209.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($47,600) and the ninetieth ($119,650) 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 $60,907 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 $60,209 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.