Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$27,991
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$6,049
17.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,315
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
$34,040
Kept after tax
$27,991
Worth in national money
$28,315
State rank
33
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Illinois pays this job around $34,040 at the midpoint, 33 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 494 occupations Illinois publishes, this job lands at 485. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $34,040, tax leaves $27,991, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $28,315 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $39,720, since top earners drag the number up.
- For hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists the Illinois median is $34,040, ranking 33 of 50 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 485 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 hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists — median $34,040 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $27,991 retained, $28,315 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $39,720 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,960 |
| This salary | $34,040 |
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 | $27,991 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,531 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,074 |
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 | $32,123 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,509 |
| 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 hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists in Illinois earn under $34,040 and half over. The published range runs $31,200 at the tenth percentile to $58,960 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $27,991 take-home in Illinois comes from $34,040. 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 485 of 494.
- Two cautions on $28,315, the adjusted value of that $34,040 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Illinois. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 485 of 494 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,200 to $58,960; 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.
- Retained pay of $27,991, from $34,040, 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 485 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 33 of 50 for it.
- This $28,315 adjusted figure, worked from $34,040, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 485 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 485 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 $39,720, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $31,200 at the bottom tenth to $58,960 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $28,315.
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 $27,991.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 $39,720. 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 ($58,960) 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 $28,315 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 $27,991 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.