Jobs and pay in Illinois

The highest-paying occupations in Illinois

Sorted by median annual wage — the midpoint of what people in the occupation are paid in this state, not what a newcomer earns. Occupations BLS did not release a wage for are absent rather than shown as zero.

2 further occupations are paid more than every figure below, but BLS publishes them only as $239,200 or more, its reporting cap: emergency medicine physicians, radiologists. They cannot be ranked against each other, so they are named here rather than listed as identical rows.

1. Cardiologists$517,850
2. Surgeons, all other$438,010
3. Dermatologists$435,750
4. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$426,580
5. Physicians, pathologists$381,770
6. Orthodontists$343,100
7. Chief executives$331,920
8. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers$293,490
9. Nurse anesthetists$286,830
10. Ophthalmologists, except pediatric$284,630
11. Psychiatrists$258,740
12. Dentists, all other specialists$250,880
13. Family medicine physicians$245,120
14. Neurologists$237,080
15. Obstetricians and gynecologists$208,000
16. Pediatricians, general$196,760
17. Air traffic controllers$181,560
18. Computer and information systems managers$171,730
19. Podiatrists$167,400
20. Advertising and promotions managers$167,330
21. Financial managers$165,880
22. Medical dosimetrists$163,860
23. Architectural and engineering managers$163,610
24. Marketing managers$162,860
25. Arbitrators, mediators, and conciliators$162,410

Where the jobs actually are in Illinois

The same list sorted by how many people are employed in each occupation, which is a different question from what it pays and usually a more useful one. High pay in an occupation employing 400 people statewide is a narrower opportunity than it looks.

1. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand195,390 employed
2. General and operations managers171,300 employed
3. Cashiers139,630 employed
4. Registered nurses138,910 employed
5. Home health and personal care aides134,100 employed
6. Fast food and counter workers127,590 employed
7. Retail salespersons126,610 employed
8. Stockers and order fillers109,240 employed
9. Customer service representatives100,970 employed
10. Office clerks, general95,980 employed
11. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners93,760 employed
12. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers84,200 employed
13. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators76,460 employed
14. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive74,280 employed
15. Waiters and waitresses72,900 employed
16. Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel69,910 employed
17. Nursing assistants68,640 employed
18. Maintenance and repair workers, general66,600 employed
19. Teaching assistants, except postsecondary64,210 employed
20. Elementary school teachers, except special education61,520 employed
21. Software developers56,310 employed
22. Accountants and auditors54,930 employed
23. Security guards53,830 employed
24. Cooks, restaurant53,540 employed
25. Financial managers52,720 employed

The best-paid Illinois work that typically needs no bachelor's degree

Occupations BLS reports as typically entered with an associate's degree, a postsecondary certificate, some college, a high-school diploma, or no formal credential — sorted by what they pay here. Typical is not a requirement, individual employers set their own, and many of these carry state licensing that the national figure does not capture.

1. Air traffic controllers$181,560 · Associate's degree
2. First-line supervisors of police and detectives$135,080 · High school diploma or equivalent
3. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers$133,690 · High school diploma or equivalent
4. Commercial pilots$126,100 · Postsecondary nondegree award
5. Radiation therapists$124,600 · Associate's degree
6. Nuclear power reactor operators$123,980 · High school diploma or equivalent
7. First-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers$123,500 · Postsecondary nondegree award
8. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$120,250 · High school diploma or equivalent
9. Hoist and winch operators$118,210 · No formal educational credential
10. Stationary engineers and boiler operators$115,780 · High school diploma or equivalent
11. Ship engineers$115,310 · Postsecondary nondegree award
12. Tapers$113,180 · No formal educational credential
13. Nuclear technicians$110,390 · Associate's degree
14. Electrical power-line installers and repairers$108,120 · High school diploma or equivalent
15. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$107,470 · Postsecondary nondegree award
16. Terrazzo workers and finishers$107,190 · High school diploma or equivalent
17. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers$105,750 · High school diploma or equivalent
18. Reinforcing iron and rebar workers$105,580 · High school diploma or equivalent
19. First-line supervisors of correctional officers$105,450 · High school diploma or equivalent
20. Nuclear medicine technologists$104,950 · Associate's degree
21. Power plant operators$104,440 · High school diploma or equivalent
22. Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers$102,890 · High school diploma or equivalent
23. Structural iron and steel workers$101,850 · High school diploma or equivalent
24. Power distributors and dispatchers$101,470 · High school diploma or equivalent
25. Diagnostic medical sonographers$100,660 · Associate's degree

A certificate is a different credential from a degree, not a lesser one. CampusPin publishes the national picture of pay by entry education and which fields are actually awarded as certificates rather than degrees.

What Illinois does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Illinois employment divided by its share of U.S. employment. 2.0 means twice as concentrated here as nationally. It describes where the work IS — not what it pays, and not how easy it is to be hired. Limited to occupations employing at least 500 people in the state, so a tiny base cannot manufacture a large ratio.

Mathematical science occupations, all other lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

Other states