Counter and Rental Clerks in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,082
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$7,058
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,442
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
$38,140
Kept after tax
$31,082
Worth in national money
$31,442
State rank
35
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for counter and rental clerks is on the low side in Illinois. The middle earner gets $38,140. That is 35 of 51 states, and about 7.65% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 494 occupations Illinois publishes, counter and rental clerks lands at 442. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $38,140, tax leaves $31,082, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $31,442 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $44,910, since top earners drag the number up.
- For counter and rental clerks, Illinois sits in the lower band at $38,140, ranking 35 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 7.65%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Illinois, this work ranks 442 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 counter and rental clerks — median $38,140 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $31,082 retained, $31,442 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $44,910 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Counter and Rental Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,870 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,140 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,500 |
| This salary | $38,140 |
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 | $31,082 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,825 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,337 |
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 | $35,971 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,827 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Illinois earn less than $38,140. The published range is $31,870 up to $63,500, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Illinois's $31,082, worked from $38,140. 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 442 of 494.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $31,442 uses one figure for the whole of Illinois. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 494 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 442.
- Reported values are medians; for counter and rental clerks in Illinois the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,870 to $63,500. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Illinois take-home of $31,082, on $38,140 for work ranking 442 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 442 of 494 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $31,442, worked from $38,140, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Illinois address, on work sitting at 442 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $44,910, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $31,870 and the top tenth $63,500 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $31,442 in national terms.
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 $31,082 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.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Illinois is $44,910. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($31,870) and the ninetieth ($63,500) 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 $31,442 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 $31,082 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.