Financial Analyst Salary in Illinois: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A financial analyst in Illinois earns a median of $101,180 a year, which works out to about $48.65 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most analysts in the state land between $78,430 and $128,620, with entry pay near $64,700 and top earners above $166,090. That puts Illinois pay just under the national median for the role.

How Illinois compares to the national average

The national median for financial analysts is $102,740, per the BLS (2025). Illinois sits at $101,180, so the state pays about $1,560 less than the country as a whole at the midpoint. That is a gap of roughly 1.5 percent, small enough that it almost disappears once you account for where the jobs actually are.

The state’s mean wage tells a slightly different story. The average financial analyst in Illinois earns $110,820, which sits well above the $101,180 median. When the mean runs that far ahead of the median, it means a band of high earners at the top is pulling the average up. You can see the same shape in the percentile spread: the 90th percentile of $166,090 is more than two and a half times the 10th percentile of $64,700. Illinois is a wide market, and the difference between a junior analyst and a senior one is large.

Illinois also carries real depth of employment. The state reports 20,520 financial analyst jobs, one of the larger concentrations in the Midwest. Chicago anchors that figure, and a strong financial-services and insurance base keeps demand steady. So while the headline median trails the national number by a hair, the volume of openings and the height of the top end make Illinois a serious market for this career.

Financial analyst pay by experience in Illinois

Experience moves this number more than almost anything else. The BLS percentile data (2025) gives a clean read on how pay climbs from a first job to a senior seat. The table below maps each percentile to a career stage so you can place yourself on it.

The jump from entry to median is the steepest part of the curve. A new analyst at $64,700 who reaches the state median is looking at $101,180, a raise of $36,480 over the first stretch of a career. That gain usually lands in the first five to eight years, as you move from supporting models built by others to owning forecasts, board decks, and recommendations that leadership acts on.

From the median up, the climb keeps going but the milestones change. Reaching the 75th percentile at $128,620 typically means a title like senior financial analyst or finance manager, often with a CFA charter or a specialty such as FP&A, valuation, or treasury. The 90th percentile of $166,090 belongs to lead analysts, finance leads at large employers, and analysts inside Chicago’s banking, trading, and asset-management firms, where pay runs richer than the broad state average. The $37,470 gap between the 75th and 90th percentiles is the reward for that last step into specialist or leadership territory.

One practical takeaway: the difference between the 25th percentile at $78,430 and the 75th at $128,620 is $50,190. Two analysts with the same job title in Illinois can sit $50,000 apart based on employer, sector, and how directly their work touches revenue decisions. Knowing where you fall on that band is the first step to arguing for more.

It helps to translate those annual figures into hourly terms when you compare offers or weigh contract work. The entry rate of $31.11 an hour grows to the median $48.65, then to $61.84 at the experienced level and $79.85 for senior analysts. A senior analyst in Illinois earns more than two and a half times the hourly rate of a brand-new one. That ratio is wider than in many states and reflects how much Chicago’s high-end finance work rewards depth. If your current raise schedule is moving you only a few percent a year, the percentile table is a useful reality check: the market clearly pays for the jump from reporting to decision-making, and waiting for incremental raises is the slow way to capture it.

Financial analyst salary by Illinois metro

Where you work inside Illinois changes the math. The BLS publishes metro-level wages (2025), and the spread between the top metro and the smaller markets is wide. Chicago dominates both pay and job count; the downstate metros trail on the median but often come with a much lower cost of living to match.

Chicago is the engine. At a median of $101,750, the Chicago metro pays right at the state’s overall median and holds 17,150 of the state’s 20,520 analyst jobs, roughly five out of every six. If you want the widest set of employers, the deepest bench of senior roles, and the clearest path to the upper percentiles, Chicago is where those jobs live. The banks, insurers, trading houses, and Fortune 500 headquarters clustered there set the top of the pay band.

The downstate picture is more nuanced. Rockford comes in second at $96,160, within striking distance of Chicago on pay while sitting in a far cheaper housing market. Champaign-Urbana at $84,330 and Peoria at $83,500 pay roughly $17,000 to $18,000 below the Chicago median, and Bloomington at $77,280 is the lowest of the five, about $24,470 under Chicago. Bloomington’s number is shaped by its insurance-heavy employer base, which leans on steady corporate finance roles rather than the high-end deal work that lifts Chicago.

It is worth noting how thin the downstate job markets are. Bloomington holds 630 analyst roles, Peoria 420, Champaign-Urbana 190, and Rockford just 170. Add them up and the four downstate metros together hold about 1,410 jobs, a fraction of Chicago’s 17,150. That scarcity cuts both ways. Fewer roles mean fewer chances to job-hop for a raise within the same city, so an analyst downstate often has to relocate or go remote to climb the percentile ladder. It also means the analysts who do hold those seats tend to be hard to replace, which can give them quiet bargaining power at review time.

The honest read: if you chase the biggest gross number, Chicago wins. But Rockford and Peoria can leave you with more spendable income once rent and a mortgage enter the picture, because the pay gap is far smaller than the cost-of-living gap. Rockford in particular stands out, paying $96,160, only about $5,590 below the Chicago median, while sitting in one of the cheapest housing markets in the state. That trade is worth running through a take-home calculation before you decide a Chicago offer beats a downstate one.

Take-home pay after taxes in Illinois

Gross salary is not what hits your account. Illinois charges a flat 4.95 percent income tax on top of federal income tax and FICA, so two analysts earning the same gross in two different states can take home very different amounts. The table below shows estimated take-home at four points on the Illinois pay curve, using 2026 tax rules for a single filer with no dependents.

At the median, a financial analyst earning $101,180 keeps about $74,558 a year after federal tax, FICA, and the Illinois flat tax, which is roughly $6,213 a month. The effective tax bite at that level is about 26.3 percent. It climbs as you earn more: an entry analyst loses about 21.6 percent of gross and nets $50,700, while a senior analyst at $166,090 gives up close to 30.1 percent and nets $116,054. The reason the rate rises is federal: Illinois itself is flat at 4.95 percent, so the state line grows in dollars but not in rate, while federal brackets push the overall burden up as income climbs. At the experienced 75th-percentile point of $128,620, take-home is $92,298 a year, or $7,692 a month, at an effective rate of about 28.2 percent.

Notice how the FICA line behaves across the table. It rises from $4,950 at entry to $12,706 at the senior level, climbing roughly in step with gross because Social Security and Medicare are a fixed percentage of wages up to the annual cap. For most analysts the bigger swing comes from the federal line, which more than quadruples from $5,848 at entry to $29,109 at the top. The Illinois state line stays the most predictable of the three, moving from $3,203 to $8,221 in a straight 4.95 percent line. That predictability is one quiet advantage of a flat-tax state: your state withholding is easy to forecast no matter how much your bonus or a raise adds.

Here is the comparison that matters most, and the one a generic salary overview will skip. Take that same $101,180 gross and put the analyst in Texas, a state with no income tax. In Texas the net take-home is about $79,566, because the Illinois state line of $5,008 simply disappears. That is a gap of $5,008 a year on identical gross pay, money that goes straight to the state in Illinois and stays in your pocket in Texas. Over a decade at the median, that flat 4.95 percent adds up to roughly $50,000 in cumulative state tax that a Texas analyst never pays.

That gap does not automatically make Texas the better move. The number that actually decides your standard of living is net pay minus local housing. A Chicago analyst paying suburban rent or a Naperville mortgage may still come out ahead of a Dallas counterpart depending on the housing market they pick, and a Rockford or Peoria analyst keeping the full Illinois salary while paying downstate housing costs can beat both. Run your own gross through the Illinois paycheck calculator and then subtract your real rent or mortgage to see the figure that counts. If you want help projecting your full federal and state bill before April, tax-prep tools like TurboTax can estimate it from your actual numbers.

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How to earn more as a financial analyst in Illinois

The percentile spread shows there is real room to move up. Going from the median of $101,180 to the 75th percentile of $128,620 is a $27,440 raise, and the steps to get there are specific.

• Earn the CFA charter. In Chicago’s banking, asset-management, and trading firms, the Chartered Financial Analyst designation is the clearest signal of advanced skill and routinely separates 75th-percentile analysts from median ones. The three-exam path takes a few years but maps directly onto the upper pay band.
• Specialize in FP&A or valuation. Analysts who own financial planning and analysis, build the models leadership uses to set budgets, or run valuation and M&A work command higher pay than general reporting roles. These are the seats that reach the $128,620 to $166,090 range.
• Move toward Chicago employers. The Chicago metro median of $101,750 and its 17,150 jobs mean the deepest set of high-paying employers sits there. Even keeping your home downstate, targeting Chicago-headquartered banks and insurers widens your ceiling.
• Build technical skills. Strong SQL, Python, and advanced Excel and modeling skills move analysts into higher-value work fast. Short, credential-bearing courses on platforms like Coursera in financial modeling, data analysis, or the CFA curriculum are a low-cost way to close the gap to the next percentile.
• Switch employers deliberately. The $50,190 spread between the 25th and 75th percentiles is largely an employer-and-sector story. Moving from a low-paying corporate finance team to a bank, fund, or consultancy can jump your pay more than any single internal raise.
• Target the sectors that pay the top end. The mean of $110,820 running above the median tells you a high-paying tier exists. Banking, asset management, and trading firms populate it; aiming your job search at those sectors is the most direct route to the 90th percentile of $166,090.

Job outlook for financial analysts in Illinois

Illinois supports 20,520 financial analyst jobs, per the BLS (2025), one of the larger totals among U.S. states and the deepest in the Midwest. The concentration in Chicago, with 17,150 of those roles, reflects a financial-services, insurance, and corporate-headquarters base that keeps hiring steady through cycles. Demand for analysts tends to hold up because companies need forecasting, budgeting, and investment analysis whether the economy is expanding or tightening.

The downstate metros add smaller but real markets. Bloomington’s 630 jobs and Peoria’s 420 are anchored by major corporate employers, which means steady, lower-volatility roles. For someone weighing where to plant a career, the takeaway is that Chicago offers volume and a high ceiling, while downstate offers stability and a friendlier cost base. When you start a search, a board like ZipRecruiter lets you filter Illinois analyst roles by metro and pay so you can see live demand in your target market.

Related and higher-paying roles in Illinois

Financial analyst is one node in a cluster of Illinois finance roles, and the pay gaps between them are concrete. Using BLS state medians (2025), a personal financial advisor in Illinois earns $120,130, which is $18,950 more than a financial analyst here. An accountant earns $80,230, which is $20,950 less than a financial analyst in Illinois. If your goal is the higher number, the advisor track is the upgrade; if you are comparing an accounting offer, expect it to sit roughly $21,000 below analyst pay at the median.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2025; Illinois Department of Revenue 2026 tax rates. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.