Physical Therapist Aides in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,959
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$6,691
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,306
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
$36,650
Kept after tax
$29,959
Worth in national money
$30,306
State rank
14
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Illinois pays physical therapist aides a middle wage of $36,650, ranking 14 of 50 states and sitting about 4% above the national middle.
- Within Illinois this is lower-paid work. Of 494 occupations the state publishes figures for, physical therapist aides ranks 461. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $36,650 the take-home is $29,959, which is worth about $30,306 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $38,610, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Illinois's median for physical therapist aides is $36,650, about 4% above the national figure and 14 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Against every occupation Illinois reports, physical therapist aides ranks 461 of 494, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Illinois's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for physical therapist aides on its $36,650 median: $29,959 retained after tax becomes $30,306 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $38,610 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,650 |
| Top tenth earn over | $48,360 |
| This salary | $36,650 |
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 | $29,959 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,628 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,242 |
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 | $34,572 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,711 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $36,650 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,200 and the ninetieth is $48,360 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $29,959 take-home in Illinois comes from $36,650. 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 461 of 494.
- Two cautions on $30,306, the adjusted value of that $36,650 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 461 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $36,650 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,200 to $48,360. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $29,959, from $36,650, 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 461 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 50 for it.
- This $30,306 adjusted figure, worked from $36,650, 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 461 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 461 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 $38,610, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $31,200 and the top tenth $48,360, so most people doing this work in Illinois sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $30,306 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Illinois's own levy, $29,959 remains.
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 $38,610. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($31,200 to $48,360) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Illinois rather than a national figure.
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 $30,306 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 $29,959 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.