Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$74,342
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$25,608
25.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$75,203
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
$99,950
Kept after tax
$74,342
Worth in national money
$75,203
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Illinois pays this job a middle wage of $99,950, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 56.66% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Illinois. It ranks 79 out of 494 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $99,950, tax leaves $74,342, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $75,203 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $93,400.
- Illinois's median for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters is $99,950, about 56.66% above the national figure and 2 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Illinois, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters ranks 79 of 494 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters — median $99,950 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $74,342 retained, $75,203 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $93,400 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $99,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $126,430 |
| This salary | $99,950 |
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 | $74,342 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,145 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,243 |
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 | $93,123 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,623 |
| 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 plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters in Illinois earn under $99,950 and half over. The published range runs $50,250 at the tenth percentile to $126,430 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $74,342 take-home in Illinois comes from $99,950. 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 79 of 494.
- One number stands for prices across all of Illinois, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $75,203, the adjusted value of that $99,950 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 79 of 494 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $50,250 to $126,430; 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 $74,342, from $99,950, 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 79 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 2 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Illinois, so $75,203 — the adjusted value of that $99,950 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 79 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 $93,400 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 $50,250, the highest tenth $126,430, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $75,203.
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 $74,342 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 $93,400. 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 ($50,250) and the ninetieth ($126,430) 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 $75,203 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 $74,342 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.