Crossing Guards and Flaggers in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,723
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$7,267
18.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,091
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
$38,990
Kept after tax
$31,723
Worth in national money
$32,091
State rank
19
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Illinois pays crossing guards and flaggers around $38,990 at the midpoint, 19 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 494 occupations Illinois publishes, crossing guards and flaggers lands at 436. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $38,990, tax leaves $31,723, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $32,091 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $45,300, since top earners drag the number up.
- For crossing guards and flaggers the Illinois median is $38,990, ranking 19 of 49 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Illinois, this work ranks 436 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 crossing guards and flaggers — median $38,990 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $31,723 retained, $32,091 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $45,300 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Crossing Guards and Flaggers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,880 |
| This salary | $38,990 |
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 | $31,723 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,508 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,392 |
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 | $36,768 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,893 |
| 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 $38,990. The published range is $31,200 up to $79,880, 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 $31,723, worked from $38,990. 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 436 of 494.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $32,091 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 436.
- Reported values are medians; for crossing guards and flaggers in Illinois the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,200 to $79,880. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Illinois take-home of $31,723, on $38,990 for work ranking 436 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 436 of 494 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $32,091, worked from $38,990, 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 436 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 $45,300, 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 $31,200 and the top tenth $79,880 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $32,091 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Illinois's own levy, $31,723 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $45,300. 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 ($31,200) and the ninetieth ($79,880) 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 $32,091 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 $31,723 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.