Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,484
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$11,756
20.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,011
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
$57,240
Kept after tax
$45,484
Worth in national money
$46,011
State rank
5
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $57,240, putting the state 5 of 51 — about 13.71% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 494 occupations Illinois reports figures for, this is number 292.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $57,240, tax leaves $45,484, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $46,011 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $59,400, since top earners drag the number up.
- For dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $57,240, ranking 5 of 51 and running about 13.71% 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.
- In Illinois's occupational distribution, dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance sits at 292 of 494 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance — median $57,240 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $45,484 retained, $46,011 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $59,400 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,380 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $83,600 |
| This salary | $57,240 |
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 | $45,484 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,172 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,562 |
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 | $53,894 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,308 |
| 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 $57,240. The published range is $37,380 up to $83,600, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $45,484 take-home in Illinois comes from $57,240. 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 292 of 494.
- One number stands for prices across all of Illinois, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $46,011, the adjusted value of that $57,240 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 292 of 494 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance in Illinois the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,380 to $83,600. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $45,484, from $57,240, 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 292 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 5 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Illinois, so $46,011 — the adjusted value of that $57,240 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 292 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $59,400, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $37,380 at the bottom tenth to $83,600 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $46,011 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 $45,484 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 $59,400. 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 ($37,380) and the ninetieth ($83,600) 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 $46,011 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 $45,484 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.