Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$57,626
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$16,764
22.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,293
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
$74,390
Kept after tax
$57,626
Worth in national money
$58,293
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Illinois pays this job a middle wage of $74,390, ranking 16 of 51 states and sitting about 2.87% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Illinois, this sits in the middle: 185 of 494 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $74,390, tax leaves $57,626, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $58,293 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $76,610, since top earners drag the number up.
- Illinois's median for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants is $74,390, about 2.87% above the national figure and 16 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ranks 185 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.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants — median $74,390 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $57,626 retained, $58,293 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $76,610 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,750 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,390 |
| Top tenth earn over | $104,850 |
| This salary | $74,390 |
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 | $57,626 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,163 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,648 |
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 | $69,362 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,421 |
| 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 $74,390. The published range is $50,750 up to $104,850, 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 $57,626, worked from $74,390. 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 185 of 494.
- One number stands for prices across all of Illinois, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $58,293, the adjusted value of that $74,390 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 185 of 494 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in Illinois the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $50,750 to $104,850. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Illinois take-home of $57,626, on $74,390 for work ranking 185 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 185 of 494 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Illinois, so $58,293 — the adjusted value of that $74,390 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 185 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $50,750, the highest tenth $104,850, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $58,293.
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 $57,626.
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 ($50,750) and the ninetieth ($104,850) 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 $58,293 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 $57,626 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.