Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,332
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$13,338
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,915
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
$63,670
Kept after tax
$50,332
Worth in national money
$50,915
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $63,670, putting the state 15 of 51 — about 1.24% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 494 occupations Illinois reports figures for, this is number 227.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $63,670, tax leaves $50,332, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $50,915 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $72,310, since top earners drag the number up.
- For paralegals and legal assistants, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $63,670, ranking 15 of 51 and running about 1.24% 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, paralegals and legal assistants sits at 227 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 paralegals and legal assistants — median $63,670 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $50,332 retained, $50,915 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $72,310 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Paralegals and Legal Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $104,580 |
| This salary | $63,670 |
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 | $50,332 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,339 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,975 |
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 | $59,928 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,807 |
| 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 paralegals and legal assistants in Illinois earn under $63,670 and half over. The published range runs $46,860 at the tenth percentile to $104,580 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $50,332 take-home in Illinois comes from $63,670. 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 227 of 494.
- Two cautions on $50,915, the adjusted value of that $63,670 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 227 of 494 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for paralegals and legal assistants in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,860 to $104,580; 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 $50,332, from $63,670, 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 227 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 15 of 51 for it.
- This $50,915 adjusted figure, worked from $63,670, 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 227 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 227 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 $72,310 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $46,860 at the bottom tenth to $104,580 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 $50,915.
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 $50,332 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 $72,310. 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 ($46,860) and the ninetieth ($104,580) 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 $50,915 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 $50,332 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.