Special Education Teachers, Preschool in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,510
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$13,070
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,084
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
$62,580
Kept after tax
$49,510
Worth in national money
$50,084
State rank
21
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Illinois pays this job around $62,580 at the midpoint, 21 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 237 among 494 occupations Illinois publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $62,580, tax leaves $49,510, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $50,084 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $67,490, since top earners drag the number up.
- For special education teachers, preschool the Illinois median is $62,580, ranking 21 of 45 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.
- Position 237 of 494 in Illinois places special education teachers, preschool 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 special education teachers, preschool — median $62,580 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,510 retained, $50,084 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $67,490 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Special Education Teachers, Preschool
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,320 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,580 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,460 |
| This salary | $62,580 |
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 | $49,510 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,463 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,905 |
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 | $58,905 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,722 |
| 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 special education teachers, preschool in Illinois earn under $62,580 and half over. The published range runs $42,320 at the tenth percentile to $100,460 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $49,510 take-home in Illinois comes from $62,580. 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 237 of 494.
- Two cautions on $50,084, the adjusted value of that $62,580 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 237 of 494 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for special education teachers, preschool in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $42,320 to $100,460; 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 $49,510, from $62,580, 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 237 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 45 for it.
- This $50,084 adjusted figure, worked from $62,580, 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 237 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 237 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $67,490 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $42,320 and the top tenth $100,460 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $50,084 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 $49,510 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 45 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 $67,490. 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 ($42,320) and the ninetieth ($100,460) 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 $50,084 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 $49,510 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.