Photographers in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,899
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$6,671
18.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,245
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
$36,570
Kept after tax
$29,899
Worth in national money
$30,245
State rank
44
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for photographers is on the low side in Illinois. The middle earner gets $36,570. That is 44 of 49 states, and about 18.11% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 494 occupations Illinois publishes, photographers lands at 462. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $36,570, tax leaves $29,899, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $30,245 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $50,600, since top earners drag the number up.
- For photographers, Illinois sits in the lower band at $36,570, ranking 44 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 18.11%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Illinois, this work ranks 462 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 photographers — median $36,570 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $29,899 retained, $30,245 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $50,600 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Photographers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,570 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,770 |
| This salary | $36,570 |
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 | $29,899 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,564 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,237 |
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 | $34,497 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,705 |
| 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 photographers in Illinois earn under $36,570 and half over. The published range runs $31,200 at the tenth percentile to $96,770 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Illinois the take-home figure of $29,899, from $36,570, 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 462 of 494 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $30,245, the adjusted value of that $36,570 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 462 of 494 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for photographers in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,200 to $96,770; 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.
- Take-home for Illinois is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $29,899 from $36,570. 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 462 of 494 locally.
- This $30,245 adjusted figure, worked from $36,570, 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 462 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 462 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 $50,600, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $31,200 and the top tenth $96,770 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $30,245 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 $29,899.
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 49 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 $50,600. 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 ($96,770) 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 $30,245 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 $29,899 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.