Painters, Construction and Maintenance in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,515
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$12,745
20.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,077
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
$61,260
Kept after tax
$48,515
Worth in national money
$49,077
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for painters, construction and maintenance is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $61,260, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 24.01% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 494 occupations Illinois reports figures for, this is number 258.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $61,260 the take-home is $48,515, which is worth about $49,077 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $69,630, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For painters, construction and maintenance, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $61,260, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 24.01% 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, painters, construction and maintenance sits at 258 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.
- Illinois's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for painters, construction and maintenance on its $61,260 median: $48,515 retained after tax becomes $49,077 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $69,630 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Painters, Construction and Maintenance
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,820 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,260 |
| Top tenth earn over | $105,350 |
| This salary | $61,260 |
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 | $48,515 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,402 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,820 |
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 | $57,666 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,620 |
| 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 $61,260. The published range is $40,820 up to $105,350, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Illinois the take-home figure of $48,515, from $61,260, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 258 of 494 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $49,077, the adjusted value of that $61,260 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 258 of 494 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for painters, construction and maintenance in Illinois the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $40,820 to $105,350. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Illinois is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $48,515 from $61,260. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 258 of 494 locally.
- This $49,077 adjusted figure, worked from $61,260, 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 258 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 258 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $69,630 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $40,820, the highest tenth $105,350, 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 $49,077 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 $48,515.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $69,630. 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 ($40,820) and the ninetieth ($105,350) 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 $49,077 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 $48,515 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.