Respiratory Therapist Salary in Illinois: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A respiratory therapist in Illinois earns a median of $84,090 a year, or about $40.43 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the state’s roughly 4,880 respiratory therapists land between $64,480 at the 10th percentile and $100,100 at the 90th. That median sits above the national figure, and the rest of this page breaks down what it means by experience, by city, and after Illinois taxes take their cut.

How Illinois compares to the national average

Illinois pays respiratory therapists a bit better than the country as a whole. The state median of $84,090 runs $1,810 ahead of the national median of $82,280 reported by the BLS for 2025. That’s not a dramatic premium, but it’s a real one, and it stacks up favorably against the cost of living once you step outside the Chicago metro.

The state mean is even higher at $84,920, which tells you the upper end of the pay range pulls the average up. When the mean sits above the median, a cluster of senior and specialty therapists at the top is doing the lifting. For a worker deciding whether Illinois is worth it, the headline is simple: you start from a slightly above-average base, and the ceiling here is healthy.

One number worth holding onto: 4,880 respiratory therapists work across Illinois. That’s a mid-sized workforce for the role, concentrated heavily in the Chicago area, which shapes both where the jobs are and what they pay.

It’s worth putting the percentile spread next to the national picture too. In Illinois the 10th percentile sits at $64,480 and the 90th reaches $100,100, a band of $35,620 from the bottom to the top of the field. That spread is what experience, credentials, and setting are worth over a full career. The median of $84,090 lands almost exactly in the middle of that band, which is typical for a licensed clinical role where pay is driven by a mix of tenure and unit acuity rather than by commissions or bonuses. For a reader comparing offers, the takeaway is that the Illinois market rewards the climb: there’s real money sitting above the median if you move toward critical care and lead roles, and we map exactly how much in the experience section below.

Respiratory therapist pay by experience in Illinois

Experience moves this number a lot. A new grad on their first license is paid near the bottom of the range, and a seasoned therapist in a lead or critical-care role is paid near the top. The BLS percentile data gives you a clean ladder to map your own seat.

The jump from entry to median is the steepest part of the climb. Moving from $64,480 to $84,090 is a gain of $19,610, and most therapists cover that ground in their first several years as they finish orientation, pick up night and weekend differentials, and add competencies like adult critical care or neonatal work. After the median, the curve flattens. Going from the 75th percentile at $96,260 to the 90th at $100,100 is only $3,840, so the top of the field is densely packed. Breaking past $100,100 usually means a title change, a shift into management, or a move into a specialty unit rather than simply logging more years.

Early career is where the biggest single bump hides. The gap between the 10th percentile and the 25th is $12,960, larger than the gap between the 25th and the median. If you’re an Illinois new grad, your first two or three raises and a switch to a higher-acuity setting can realistically carry you from the entry tier into the early-career band quickly.

It also helps to think about these tiers in monthly terms, since that’s how you actually budget. At the 25th percentile, $77,440 works out to roughly $6,453 a month gross before tax. At the median of $84,090 that’s about $7,008 a month, and at the experienced 75th percentile of $96,260 it’s about $8,022 a month. Stepping from early career to experienced therefore adds roughly $1,569 a month in gross pay, which is the kind of difference that changes what house you can buy or whether one income can carry a family. Those gross figures get trimmed by tax, and the take-home section converts each one into the number that lands in your account.

A note on what the percentiles do and don’t capture. The BLS figures are base wage data, so they leave out overtime, shift differentials, on-call premiums, and sign-on bonuses, all of which are common in Illinois respiratory therapy. A therapist whose base sits at the median can pull total compensation toward the 75th percentile through nights and weekend coverage alone. That’s part of why the percentile ladder understates real earning potential for anyone willing to work the less popular shifts, and it’s a lever you control independent of tenure.

Respiratory therapist salary by Illinois metro

Where you work inside Illinois matters as much as how long you’ve worked. The Chicago metro pays a clear premium and holds the overwhelming majority of the jobs. Downstate metros pay less but often come with far lower housing costs, which can leave more in your pocket. Here are the five largest metro markets in the state by employment.

Chicago is the obvious anchor. At $87,060 it pays $2,970 above the state median and $8,720 above the lowest-paying metro on this list, Champaign-Urbana at $74,660. It also holds 3,620 of the state’s roughly 4,880 respiratory therapist jobs, so the Chicago market essentially sets the tone for Illinois pay.

The downstate metros cluster tightly. Springfield leads the rest at $78,340, with Peoria at $77,660 and Rockford right behind at $77,640. The spread between Springfield and Rockford is only $700, which means once you leave Chicago the metro you pick matters less for salary and more for housing, commute, and the kind of facility you want to work in. A teaching hospital in Peoria and a community hospital in Rockford may post nearly identical base pay, so the deciding factors become shift differentials, benefits, and cost of living.

The practical read: if the top-line number is your priority, Chicago wins outright. If you’re optimizing for what the paycheck actually buys, a downstate metro paying around $77,000 to $78,000 against much cheaper rent can come out ahead. We get into that math in the take-home section below.

Employment density is the other half of the story these numbers tell. Chicago’s 3,620 jobs dwarf everything else: Peoria, the second-largest market, has 210, followed by Rockford at 160, Springfield at 140, and Champaign-Urbana at 120. Add the four downstate metros together and they total just 630 jobs, roughly a sixth of Chicago’s count. For job security and the ability to switch employers without relocating, Chicago is in a category of its own. In the smaller markets you may find one or two dominant hospital systems setting the local pay rate, which gives you less bargaining power to negotiate by playing offers against each other.

That concentration also explains why the state median of $84,090 sits closer to Chicago’s $87,060 than to the downstate cluster near $77,000. Because Chicago employs three quarters of the state’s therapists, its wages pull the statewide median upward. A therapist looking only at the headline Illinois number and then taking a job in Champaign-Urbana at $74,660 would be working $9,430 below that statewide median, a reminder to always check the metro figure rather than the state average when you weigh a specific offer.

Take-home pay after taxes in Illinois

Gross salary is the headline. Take-home is the number you live on. Illinois charges a flat 4.95% state income tax, so unlike most states, your effective state rate barely changes as you climb the pay ladder. Federal tax and FICA still scale up, though, so the effective total rate creeps from the low 20s at entry level toward the mid 20s at the senior end. Here’s how the four key percentile points break down after federal tax, FICA, and Illinois state tax.

At the median, a $84,090 salary nets out to $63,381 a year, or $5,282 a month, after an effective total rate of 24.6%. The state’s flat tax is the quiet story here: at the median you hand Illinois $4,162, and even at the senior level of $100,100 the state bill is only $4,955. Your federal liability does most of the moving, jumping from $5,800 at entry to $13,636 at the senior tier.

Walk the effective rate up the ladder and the pattern is clear. Entry level keeps the most of every dollar, with an effective total rate of 21.6%, so the $64,480 gross becomes $50,556 net, about $4,213 a month. By the experienced tier the rate has risen to 25.9%, turning $96,260 into $71,340 net, or $5,945 a month. At the senior tier the rate tops out at 26.2%, leaving $73,851 net from $100,100, about $6,154 a month. So as you climb roughly $35,620 in gross pay from entry to senior, your monthly take-home rises from $4,213 to $6,154, a gain of $1,941 a month. The tax system claims a slightly bigger share at the top, but the after-tax reward for advancing is still substantial.

FICA is the line that surprises people. It scales straight with gross, taking $4,933 at entry and $7,658 at the senior level, and unlike federal income tax there are no deductions to soften it on these salaries. Across all four tiers, FICA and the flat state tax are predictable; the federal bracket structure is the only piece that accelerates. That predictability is genuinely useful when you’re planning, because two of your three tax lines move in a straight line with your pay.

Now the comparison that matters most. Take that same median respiratory therapist and drop them into Texas, a state with no income tax. The identical $84,090 gross nets $67,543 in Texas versus $63,381 in Illinois, a difference of $4,162 a year. That gap is exactly the Illinois state tax line, dollar for dollar, because the flat 4.95% is the only thing separating the two. So an Illinois therapist is effectively trading $4,162 a year for whatever Illinois offers in pay premium, employer density, and services. Chicago’s higher median helps close that gap, but downstate it’s a real consideration.

Here’s the framing to carry into any job decision: net pay minus local housing is the number that actually matters. A Chicago therapist netting $5,282 a month against city rents is in a very different position than a Peoria therapist netting somewhat less against far cheaper housing. The bigger gross can lose to the smaller one once rent is paid. Run your own offer through the Illinois paycheck calculator before you sign anything, and if your taxes involve shift differentials, overtime, or a second job, software like TurboTax makes it easy to model the withholding accurately.

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How to earn more as a respiratory therapist in Illinois

The data shows a clear path from the entry tier near $64,480 to the senior tier near $100,100. Closing that $35,620 gap comes down to a handful of concrete moves, most of which work specifically because of how Illinois facilities staff and pay.

• Add critical-care and specialty credentials. Adult Critical Care Specialist (ACCS) and Neonatal/Pediatric Specialist (NPS) certifications from the NBRC open the higher-acuity units that pay toward the 75th and 90th percentiles. ICU and NICU therapists sit at the top of the range for a reason.
• Target the Chicago metro. At $87,060, Chicago pays $8,720 more than the lowest-paying Illinois metro and $2,970 above the state median. With 3,620 of the state’s jobs, it also gives you the most room to job-hop for raises.
• Move into lead, charge, or educator roles. Once you’re past the median, title changes drive pay more than tenure. A lead therapist or clinical educator role is how most people cross $96,260.
• Chase shift differentials. Nights, weekends, and rotating critical-care coverage carry premiums that can lift a mid-career therapist well into the experienced band without changing jobs.
• Pick up the RRT credential and keep it current. The Registered Respiratory Therapist credential is the baseline most Illinois hospitals expect for advancement and is the gate to the specialty exams above.
• Build the academic side. A bachelor’s completion or coursework toward management qualifies you for supervisory tracks. Self-paced programs on platforms like Coursera are a low-cost way to start the management and leadership coursework that supervisory roles ask for.

Job outlook for respiratory therapists in Illinois

Illinois employs about 4,880 respiratory therapists, with the bulk of that workforce, 3,620 positions, concentrated in the Chicago metro. The role is tied to hospital demand, an aging population, and chronic respiratory conditions that keep these therapists central to acute and critical care. That demand profile has held up well, and the spread of jobs across both Chicago and a network of downstate metros means openings exist statewide, not just in one market.

For someone weighing entry into the field, the combination of an above-national median, a flat and predictable state tax, and steady hospital demand makes Illinois a solid place to build the career. If you’re scoping the current market, browsing live postings on a board like ZipRecruiter is the fastest way to see which Illinois hospitals are hiring and what they’re actually offering right now.

Related and higher-paying roles in Illinois

It helps to see where respiratory therapy sits against neighboring healthcare roles in the same state. Compared to the respiratory therapist median of $84,090 in Illinois:

• A registered nurse earns a median of $95,990, which is $11,900 more than a respiratory therapist in Illinois. Nursing’s larger workforce and broader range of specialties push its median above respiratory therapy.
• An EMT or paramedic earns a median of $42,260, which is $41,830 less than a respiratory therapist in Illinois. The two roles both work acute care, but respiratory therapy’s licensure and hospital base command much higher pay.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 (occupation and metro wage data); ThePayGuide 2026 tax modeling (federal, FICA, and Illinois state tax). Last updated 2026. See our methodology.