Illinois · BLS May 2025
Also called teacher aide, paraprofessional. BLS records this occupation as “Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary” (SOC 25-9045).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 64,210 teaching assistants working in Illinois. Here is what they are paid, what the median leaves after federal, state and FICA tax, and what that is worth against local prices.
Median pay · Illinois
$36,990A year. BLS publishes no hourly wage for this occupation.| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentileEntry and lowest-paid | $31,200 | Not published |
| 25th percentile | $31,360 | Not published |
| MedianHalf earn more, half less | $36,990 | Not published |
| 75th percentile | $44,790 | Not published |
| 90th percentileMost experienced and senior | $48,100 | Not published |
| MeanThe average, pulled up by the top | $38,950 | Not published |
Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1
A $36,990 salary in Illinois, for one single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026.
Prices in Illinois sit at 100 against a national average of 100, so $36,990 earned here buys what $37,006 buys at national average prices.
Common questions
The median wage for teaching assistants in Illinois is $36,990 a year.
Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.
On the median wage of $36,990, one filer taking the standard deduction keeps about $30,215 a year, or roughly $2,518 a month.
That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 18.3%.
Illinois takes $1,686 of it in state income tax.
Yes. The median in Illinois is 0.6% above the national median of $36,780.
Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Illinois sit at 100 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.
It is 0.44 times the median household income of $83,390. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.
Prices in Illinois run at 100 against a national average of 100, with rents at 93.9, so $36,990 here buys about what $37,006 buys at national average prices.
The top tenth earn $48,100 a year or more, against $31,200 at the bottom tenth.
Experience, specialism, employer and the part of Illinois someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.
The survey counted 64,210 of these jobs in Illinois for May 2025.
That makes the occupation 15% more concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.
Sources