Postal Service Clerks in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,854
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$12,856
20.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,420
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
$61,710
Kept after tax
$48,854
Worth in national money
$49,420
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Illinois pays postal service clerks around $61,710 at the midpoint, 25 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Illinois, this sits in the middle: 251 of 494 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $61,710, tax leaves $48,854, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $49,420 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $61,530.
- For postal service clerks the Illinois median is $61,710, ranking 25 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Postal service clerks ranks 251 of 494 occupations in Illinois by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for postal service clerks — median $61,710 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $48,854 retained, $49,420 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $61,530 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Postal Service Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,030 |
| This salary | $61,710 |
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 | $48,854 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,764 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,849 |
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 | $58,089 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,655 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,710 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,600 and the ninetieth is $75,030 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Illinois's $48,854, worked from $61,710. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 251 of 494.
- Two cautions on $49,420, the adjusted value of that $61,710 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 251 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $61,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,600 to $75,030. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Illinois take-home of $48,854, on $61,710 for work ranking 251 of 494 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 251 of 494 in the state.
- This $49,420 adjusted figure, worked from $61,710, 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 251 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 251 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $42,600 and the top tenth $75,030, so most people doing this work in Illinois sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Illinois is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $49,420 in national terms.
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 $48,854 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($42,600 to $75,030) 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 $49,420 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 $48,854 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.