Industrial Engineer Salary in Illinois: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

An industrial engineer in Illinois earns a median of $100,540 a year, or about $48.34 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the field lands between $81,710 (25th percentile) and $125,210 (75th percentile), and the top 10 percent clear $155,650. That median sits just under the national figure of $102,440, so Illinois pays close to the U.S. middle for this role.

How Illinois pay compares to the national median

The national median for industrial engineers is $102,440, per the BLS (2025). Illinois comes in at $100,540, which is $1,900 below the U.S. middle, a gap of roughly 1.9 percent. For a role this technical, that is a small difference, and it tells you Illinois is a fair-paying state rather than a premium one.

The spread inside the state matters more than the gap to the nation. Illinois pay runs from $73,780 at the 10th percentile to $155,650 at the 90th. That is an $81,870 range between the bottom and top of the field, which is wide. Where you sit depends on your years on the job, the metro you work in, and the industry you serve. The state mean of $105,820 sits above the median, which is normal: a cluster of high earners in manufacturing-heavy regions pulls the average up past the midpoint.

Illinois employs about 18,640 industrial engineers, one of the larger state counts in the country. That depth comes from the state’s manufacturing base, its food and consumer-goods plants, and a logistics network anchored in Chicago. A deep employer pool gives you more room to switch jobs for a raise without relocating, which is one of the most reliable ways to move up the percentile table below.

Industrial engineer salary in Illinois by experience

Pay climbs steeply with experience in this field. The percentile points from the BLS (2025) map cleanly onto a career arc: the 10th percentile reflects entry pay, the median sits at mid-career, the 75th marks an experienced senior engineer, and the 90th captures lead and principal roles or managers who still carry an engineering title.

The jump from entry to median is worth $26,760, and it tends to land in the first five to eight years as you move from supervised project work to owning process lines and capital projects. The next leg, from median to the 75th percentile, adds $24,670 and usually comes with a Six Sigma Black Belt, a niche (think automation, supply-chain modeling, or regulated manufacturing), or a move into a higher-paying industry. Reaching the 90th percentile, another $30,440 above the experienced mark, almost always means leading people, owning a plant’s engineering function, or specializing in a high-demand area where employers compete for a thin talent pool.

One practical read on this table: the distance between the median and the 90th percentile is $55,110. That is the prize for the second half of your career, and it is mostly earned through scope and specialization rather than tenure alone. An engineer who keeps the same title for fifteen years rarely reaches the top of this range; one who adds a credential, changes industries, or takes on leadership usually does.

It also helps to read the table as hourly pay, because a lot of industrial engineering work in Illinois manufacturing is scheduled and tracked by the hour. Entry pay of $73,780 works out to $35.47 an hour, the median to $48.34, and the senior 90th-percentile figure to $74.83. That last number is worth noting: a senior industrial engineer in Illinois earns more than double an entry engineer for the same hour of work. When you weigh a certification or a move that adds even a few dollars an hour, multiply it across roughly 2,080 working hours a year to see the real annual effect. A $5-an-hour bump, the kind a single credential can justify, is more than $10,000 a year before tax.

Be careful comparing your own offer to the median in isolation. The $100,540 figure is the midpoint across every industry that employs industrial engineers in Illinois, from food processing to aerospace to logistics. An offer that looks low against the median may be strong for its industry, and one that looks generous may sit at the bottom of a high-paying sector. The percentile columns are the better yardstick: if you have eight years of experience and a clean record of cost savings, the 75th percentile of $125,210 is a fair anchor for your next negotiation, not the median.

Industrial engineer salary by Illinois metro

Location inside the state moves pay more than you might expect. The BLS (2025) metro data shows a $34,790 spread between the highest- and lowest-paying Illinois metros for this role. Peoria, home to heavy-equipment manufacturing, tops the list and pays well above Chicago despite being a fraction of its size.

Peoria is the standout. Its $117,180 median runs $16,640 above the state figure and $15,420 above Chicago. The driver is industry mix: Peoria’s industrial engineering jobs cluster around heavy machinery and the suppliers feeding it, which pay a premium for engineers who can squeeze cost and cycle time out of complex assembly. If you can live in a smaller market, Peoria is the highest-paying place in the state to do this work.

Chicago carries the volume. With 12,750 of the state’s 18,640 industrial engineering jobs, the metro holds roughly 68 percent of all positions, and its $101,760 median sits just above the statewide number. The trade-off is cost of living: Chicago housing and taxes eat into that median in ways a smaller metro does not, which is why the take-home section below matters as much as the headline pay.

Rockford, at $93,980, pays $6,560 under the state median and reflects its aerospace and fastener manufacturing base. Champaign-Urbana sits lowest at $82,390, $18,150 below the state figure, which is typical of a university-anchored metro where many roles tie to research and a smaller private-industry footprint. The 200-job count there confirms it is a thin market for this specialty.

There is a useful pattern in these four metros: the smaller, industry-specific markets either pay the most or the least, while Chicago anchors the middle with by far the most jobs. Peoria pays $34,790 more than Champaign-Urbana for the same job title, which is one of the widest in-state gaps you will find for any engineering role in Illinois. If you are early in your career and mobile, that spread is a strategy in itself: a few years in a high-paying manufacturing metro can lift your salary history in a way that follows you when you move back to Chicago later.

Weigh these numbers against cost of living, not just the headline. Peoria’s $117,180 median goes much further on housing than Chicago’s $101,760 because home prices and rent in central Illinois run well below the Chicago metro. In real, after-rent terms, the Peoria premium is larger than the $16,640 salary gap alone suggests. Chicago’s advantage is volume and variety: with 12,750 jobs, you can change employers, industries, or specialties without leaving the metro, and that optionality has its own dollar value over a career even if the median is lower than Peoria’s. For most engineers the right move is to match the metro to your stage, chase the premium markets when you are building salary history, then settle where the job depth and the lifestyle fit.

Take-home pay after taxes in Illinois

The headline salary is not what hits your account. Illinois charges a flat 4.95 percent income tax on top of federal tax and FICA, so your effective rate climbs as you earn more. The table below runs each career stage through federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and Illinois state tax for the 2026 tax year, using a single-filer estimate.

At the median, an Illinois industrial engineer keeps $74,139 of a $100,540 salary, an effective tax rate of about 26.3 percent, and takes home roughly $6,178 a month. The state’s flat tax means the Illinois portion stays proportional, but federal brackets push the total effective rate from 23.2 percent at entry to 29.7 percent at the senior level. Your raise is real, but the government takes a slightly bigger slice of each new dollar as you climb.

Illinois versus a no-tax state. Here is the comparison an AI overview will not run for you. Take the same $100,540 median and move it to Texas, which charges no state income tax. The Texas net comes to $79,116 against the Illinois net of $74,139, a gap of $4,977 a year that stays in a Texas engineer’s pocket. That is the exact cost of the Illinois 4.95 percent flat tax at this salary, about $415 a month. It is a genuine difference, and worth weighing if you are choosing between offers in the two states.

That gap widens as you earn more, because the Illinois flat tax applies to every dollar. At the experienced 75th-percentile salary of $125,210, the state alone takes $6,198, and at the senior 90th-percentile figure of $155,650 it takes $7,705. A senior engineer weighing Illinois against a no-tax state is therefore handing over close to $7,700 a year for the privilege of staying, before federal tax even enters the picture. The flip side is that Illinois does not stack a graduated state surtax on high earners the way some states do, so the 4.95 percent stays predictable no matter how high your salary climbs. You can model your own exact number, including any pre-tax 401(k) or HSA contributions that lower the taxable base, with the calculator linked below.

The figure that actually matters is net pay minus local housing. A $4,977 tax gap can be erased or reversed by rent and home prices. Chicago and its suburbs carry higher housing costs than most Texas metros, so the after-tax, after-rent picture can favor either state depending on the exact city. A Peoria or Rockford engineer keeping the full Illinois median net of $74,139 against low central-Illinois housing may end up further ahead than a Texas engineer paying big-city rent, even with the Texas tax advantage. The lesson is to compare the full picture, take-home minus housing minus commute, rather than reacting to the tax line alone. Run your own number through the Illinois paycheck calculator before you treat the tax gap as a deciding factor. If you want your withholding and deductions handled precisely at filing time, TurboTax walks through the Illinois flat-tax forms and federal brackets for you.

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How to earn more as an industrial engineer in Illinois

The percentile table shows the ceiling is high. Here is how engineers in Illinois actually move up it, drawn from what separates the median from the 75th and 90th percentiles.

• Earn a Six Sigma Black Belt. Lean and Six Sigma certification is the most direct credential for process-focused engineers and is the common thread among engineers pushing past the $125,210 experienced mark. Employers in manufacturing reward documented cost and defect reduction.
• Get a PE license. A Professional Engineer license signals senior judgment and is required for certain roles. It is a clear step toward the leadership and principal positions that populate the $155,650 90th percentile.
• Move toward Peoria’s industry mix. The $16,640 Peoria premium over the state median is real and comes from heavy-equipment and supplier work. Targeting that industry, even in Chicago, tends to pay more than consumer-goods or general manufacturing.
• Specialize in automation or supply-chain modeling. Engineers who pair industrial engineering with robotics, simulation, or data-driven logistics command the high end of the range because the skill set is thin and in demand across Illinois plants and distribution hubs.
• Change employers deliberately. With 18,640 jobs statewide and 12,750 in Chicago alone, the market is deep enough to switch for a raise. A planned move every few years typically beats waiting for internal increases.
• Step into management. The jump from the median to the 90th percentile is $55,110, and most of it goes to engineers who lead teams or own a plant’s engineering function. If you want the top of the range, scope and people-leadership get you there faster than tenure.

If you need to build a specific skill before you can ask for the raise, short courses in Lean Six Sigma, simulation, or supply-chain analytics through Coursera are a low-cost way to add a credential that maps directly to the steps above.

Job outlook for industrial engineers in Illinois

Illinois supports about 18,640 industrial engineering jobs, per the BLS (2025), which makes it one of the deeper markets in the country for the specialty. The concentration in Chicago, paired with the higher-paying pockets in Peoria and Rockford, means demand is spread across both volume metros and premium ones.

The work itself is durable. Industrial engineers improve efficiency, cut waste, and design better workflows, the kind of role manufacturers and logistics operators keep funding through good times and lean ones because it pays for itself. As Illinois plants invest in automation and supply-chain resilience, the engineers who can plan and optimize those systems stay in demand. To see who is hiring right now and at what pay, ZipRecruiter lists current Illinois openings for the role.

Related and higher-paying roles in Illinois

Two adjacent engineering roles in Illinois sit close to industrial engineering pay, which makes them realistic lateral moves. Using the BLS (2025) state medians: a mechanical engineer in Illinois earns a median of $102,680, which is $2,140 MORE than an industrial engineer in Illinois. A civil engineer earns $99,760, which is $780 LESS. The gaps are small, so the better question is fit and industry rather than a few thousand dollars of base pay. All three benefit from the same credentials, a PE license and a specialization, that push pay toward the upper percentiles.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), 2025; Illinois Department of Revenue flat income tax rate; federal tax brackets and FICA, 2026 tax year. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.