Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,499
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$6,541
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,841
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
$36,040
Kept after tax
$29,499
Worth in national money
$29,841
State rank
37
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Illinois. The middle earner gets $36,040. That is 37 of 45 states, and about 16.01% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 494 occupations Illinois publishes, this job lands at 468. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $36,040, tax leaves $29,499, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $29,841 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $49,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- For teaching assistants, postsecondary, Illinois sits in the lower band at $36,040, ranking 37 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 16.01%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Illinois, this work ranks 468 of 494 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Illinois sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for teaching assistants, postsecondary — median $36,040 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $29,499 retained, $29,841 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $49,630 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,850 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,230 |
| This salary | $36,040 |
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 | $29,499 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,138 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,203 |
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 | $34,000 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,664 |
| 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 $36,040. The published range is $31,850 up to $96,230, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Illinois's $29,499, worked from $36,040. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 468 of 494.
- Two cautions on $29,841, the adjusted value of that $36,040 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 468 of 494 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for teaching assistants, postsecondary in Illinois the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,850 to $96,230. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Illinois take-home of $29,499, on $36,040 for work ranking 468 of 494 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 468 of 494 in the state.
- This $29,841 adjusted figure, worked from $36,040, 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 468 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 468 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 $49,630, 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 $31,850, the highest tenth $96,230, 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 $29,841 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Illinois then takes its own share, leaving $29,499.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 $49,630. 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 ($31,850) and the ninetieth ($96,230) 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 $29,841 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 $29,499 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.