Public Relations Managers in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$95,092
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$36,898
28.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$96,194
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
$131,990
Kept after tax
$95,092
Worth in national money
$96,194
State rank
19
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Illinois pays public relations managers around $131,990 at the midpoint, 19 of 48 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 494 occupations Illinois reports, public relations managers comes in at 26 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $131,990, tax leaves $95,092, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $96,194 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $142,720, since top earners drag the number up.
- For public relations managers the Illinois median is $131,990, ranking 19 of 48 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.
- Public relations managers ranks 26 of 494 occupations by median in Illinois, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for public relations managers — median $131,990 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $95,092 retained, $96,194 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $142,720 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Public Relations Managers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $75,730 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $131,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $221,440 |
| This salary | $131,990 |
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 | $95,092 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $101,481 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,237 |
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 | $122,643 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,668 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $131,990 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $75,730 and the ninetieth is $221,440 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Illinois the take-home figure of $95,092, from $131,990, 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 26 of 494 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $96,194, the adjusted value of that $131,990 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 26 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $131,990 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $75,730 to $221,440. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Illinois is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $95,092 from $131,990. 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 26 of 494 locally.
- This $96,194 adjusted figure, worked from $131,990, 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 26 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 26 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 $142,720, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $75,730 at the bottom tenth to $221,440 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 $96,194.
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, $95,092 remains.
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 48 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 $142,720. 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 ($75,730) and the ninetieth ($221,440) 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 $96,194 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 $95,092 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.