Transportation Security Screeners in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$55,128
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$15,442
21.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,766
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
$70,570
Kept after tax
$55,128
Worth in national money
$55,766
State rank
10
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $70,570, putting the state 10 of 45 — about 5.69% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 196 among 494 occupations Illinois publishes pay for.
- No great distortion either way. Illinois costs about what the country costs, so from $70,570, take-home of $55,128 is worth roughly $55,766 in national money. The average lands at $67,300, below the middle of the range.
- For transportation security screeners, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $70,570, ranking 10 of 45 and running about 5.69% 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.
- Position 196 of 494 in Illinois places transportation security screeners 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.
- Price parity in Illinois is near the national base, so for transportation security screeners, whose median is $70,570, the adjusted figure of $55,766 differs little from $55,128 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $67,300 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Transportation Security Screeners
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $70,570 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,190 |
| This salary | $70,570 |
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 | $55,128 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $58,476 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,410 |
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 | $65,896 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,840 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $70,570 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,070 and the ninetieth is $75,190 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $55,128 take-home in Illinois comes from $70,570. 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 196 of 494.
- Two cautions on $55,766, the adjusted value of that $70,570 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 196 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $70,570 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,070 to $75,190. 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 $55,128, from $70,570, 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 196 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 45 for it.
- This $55,766 adjusted figure, worked from $70,570, 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 196 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 196 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 $67,300, 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 $45,070 and the top tenth $75,190, so most people doing this work in Illinois sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $55,766 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $55,128 of this wage survives to your account.
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 $67,300. 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 ($45,070 to $75,190) 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 $55,766 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 $55,128 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.