Slaughterers and Meat Packers in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,217
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$8,733
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,637
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
$44,950
Kept after tax
$36,217
Worth in national money
$36,637
State rank
12
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for slaughterers and meat packers is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $44,950, putting the state 12 of 47 — about 12.01% ahead of the national figure.
- Measured against other jobs in Illinois, this one sits low: 396 of 494 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $44,950 the take-home is $36,217, which is worth about $36,637 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $43,430, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For slaughterers and meat packers, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $44,950, ranking 12 of 47 and running about 12.01% 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.
- Slaughterers and meat packers occupies position 396 of 494 in Illinois's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Illinois's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for slaughterers and meat packers on its $44,950 median: $36,217 retained after tax becomes $36,637 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $43,430 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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Pay band: Slaughterers and Meat Packers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,910 |
| This salary | $44,950 |
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 | $36,217 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,297 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,774 |
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 | $42,361 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,355 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $44,950 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,970 and the ninetieth is $49,910 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $36,217 take-home in Illinois comes from $44,950. 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 396 of 494.
- Two cautions on $36,637, the adjusted value of that $44,950 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 396 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $44,950 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,970 to $49,910. 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 $36,217, from $44,950, 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 396 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 47 for it.
- This $36,637 adjusted figure, worked from $44,950, 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 396 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 396 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 $43,430, 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 $33,970 and the top tenth $49,910, so most people doing this work in Illinois sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $36,637.
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, $36,217 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 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 $43,430. 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 ($33,970 to $49,910) 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 $36,637 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 $36,217 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.