Environmental Engineers in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$79,600
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$28,390
26.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$80,522
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
$107,990
Kept after tax
$79,600
Worth in national money
$80,522
State rank
16
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Illinois pays environmental engineers a middle wage of $107,990, ranking 16 of 50 states and sitting about 0.82% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Illinois. It ranks 48 out of 494 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $107,990, tax leaves $79,600, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $80,522 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $116,020, since top earners drag the number up.
- Illinois's median for environmental engineers is $107,990, about 0.82% above the national figure and 16 of 50 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, environmental engineers ranks 48 of 494 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for environmental engineers — median $107,990 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $79,600 retained, $80,522 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $116,020 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Environmental Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $71,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $107,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $153,150 |
| This salary | $107,990 |
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 | $79,600 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $84,801 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,744 |
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 | $100,597 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,316 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of environmental engineers in Illinois earn under $107,990 and half over. The published range runs $71,990 at the tenth percentile to $153,150 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Illinois's $79,600, worked from $107,990. 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 48 of 494.
- One number stands for prices across all of Illinois, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $80,522, the adjusted value of that $107,990 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 48 of 494 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for environmental engineers in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $71,990 to $153,150; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Illinois take-home of $79,600, on $107,990 for work ranking 48 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 48 of 494 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Illinois, so $80,522 — the adjusted value of that $107,990 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 48 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 $116,020, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $71,990, the highest tenth $153,150, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $80,522 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $79,600.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $116,020. 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 ($71,990) and the ninetieth ($153,150) 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 $80,522 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 $79,600 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.