Real Estate Sales Agents in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,977
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$12,243
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,521
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
$59,220
Kept after tax
$46,977
Worth in national money
$47,521
State rank
16
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for real estate sales agents is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $59,220, putting the state 16 of 48 — about 12.1% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Real estate sales agents ranks 282 among 494 occupations Illinois publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $59,220, tax leaves $46,977, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $47,521 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $57,260.
- For real estate sales agents, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $59,220, ranking 16 of 48 and running about 12.1% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 282 of 494 in Illinois places real estate sales agents in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for real estate sales agents — median $59,220 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $46,977 retained, $47,521 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $57,260 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Real Estate Sales Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,750 |
| This salary | $59,220 |
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 | $46,977 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,763 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,689 |
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 | $55,752 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,462 |
| 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 real estate sales agents in Illinois earn under $59,220 and half over. The published range runs $35,830 at the tenth percentile to $79,750 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $46,977 take-home in Illinois comes from $59,220. 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 282 of 494.
- Two cautions on $47,521, the adjusted value of that $59,220 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 282 of 494 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for real estate sales agents in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,830 to $79,750; 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 $46,977, from $59,220, 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 282 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 16 of 48 for it.
- This $47,521 adjusted figure, worked from $59,220, 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 282 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 282 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 $57,260, 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 $35,830 and the top tenth $79,750 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $47,521.
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, $46,977 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 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 $57,260. 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 ($35,830) and the ninetieth ($79,750) 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 $47,521 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 $46,977 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.