Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$77,586
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$27,324
26.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$78,485
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
$104,910
Kept after tax
$77,586
Worth in national money
$78,485
State rank
13
of 46 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 $104,910, ranking 13 of 46 states and sitting about 0.58% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Illinois. It ranks 60 out of 494 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $104,910, tax leaves $77,586, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $78,485 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $107,950, since top earners drag the number up.
- Illinois's median for software quality assurance analysts and testers is $104,910, about 0.58% above the national figure and 13 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Illinois, software quality assurance analysts and testers ranks 60 of 494 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for software quality assurance analysts and testers — median $104,910 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $77,586 retained, $78,485 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $107,950 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $65,480 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $150,620 |
| This salary | $104,910 |
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 | $77,586 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,634 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,552 |
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 | $97,734 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,050 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Illinois earn less than $104,910. The published range is $65,480 up to $150,620, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Illinois the take-home figure of $77,586, from $104,910, 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 60 of 494 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $78,485, the adjusted value of that $104,910 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 60 of 494 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for software quality assurance analysts and testers in Illinois the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $65,480 to $150,620. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Illinois is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $77,586 from $104,910. 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 60 of 494 locally.
- This $78,485 adjusted figure, worked from $104,910, 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 60 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 60 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $65,480, the highest tenth $150,620, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $78,485 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 $77,586 of this wage survives to your account.
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 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($65,480) and the ninetieth ($150,620) 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 $78,485 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 $77,586 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.