Social and Human Service Assistants in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,725
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$9,225
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,162
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
$46,950
Kept after tax
$37,725
Worth in national money
$38,162
State rank
16
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 $46,950, ranking 16 of 51 states and sitting about 2.22% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Illinois, this sits in the middle: 369 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 $46,950, tax leaves $37,725, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $38,162 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $50,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- Illinois's median for social and human service assistants is $46,950, about 2.22% above the national figure and 16 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.
- Social and human service assistants ranks 369 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 social and human service assistants — median $46,950 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $37,725 retained, $38,162 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $50,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Social and Human Service Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,030 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $72,780 |
| This salary | $46,950 |
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 | $37,725 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,904 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,902 |
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 | $44,238 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,510 |
| 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 social and human service assistants in Illinois earn under $46,950 and half over. The published range runs $35,030 at the tenth percentile to $72,780 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $37,725 take-home in Illinois comes from $46,950. 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 369 of 494.
- One number stands for prices across all of Illinois, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,162, the adjusted value of that $46,950 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 369 of 494 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for social and human service assistants in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,030 to $72,780; 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 $37,725, from $46,950, 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 369 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 16 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Illinois, so $38,162 — the adjusted value of that $46,950 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 369 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $50,460, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $35,030, the highest tenth $72,780, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Illinois sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $38,162 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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, $37,725 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $50,460. 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 ($35,030) and the ninetieth ($72,780) 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 $38,162 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 $37,725 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.