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

A logistician in Illinois earns a median of $80,100 a year, or about $38.51 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the field lands between $63,300 (25th percentile) and $100,620 (75th percentile), with the top 10 percent clearing $128,070. That median sits a touch under the national figure of $82,320, and Illinois taxes income at a flat rate, which matters once you look at take-home.

How Illinois compares to the national logistician salary

Illinois pays logisticians a median of $80,100, while the national median is $82,320. That’s a gap of $2,220, or roughly 2.7 percent below the U.S. middle. It’s a small gap, and it doesn’t tell the whole story, because the state mean of $85,640 runs higher than the median. When the mean sits well above the median like that, it usually means a cluster of high earners, often in manufacturing, rail, and third-party logistics around Chicago, pulling the average up while the typical worker earns less.

The spread inside Illinois is wide. The 10th percentile earns $48,020 and the 90th percentile earns $128,070. That’s a $80,050 range from the bottom to the top of the field in one state. Where you land depends mostly on industry, employer size, and years on the job, and we break each of those out below. With 14,170 logisticians employed across the state, Illinois is one of the larger markets for this work in the country, anchored by its position as a national freight and rail hub.

For a logistician deciding whether to stay, the practical read is this: the headline pay is close to national, slightly under it, but Illinois carries a real cost in the form of a flat state income tax that no-tax states don’t charge. The national comparison is the wrong number to fixate on. The number that matters is what you keep after Illinois takes its cut, and that’s covered in the take-home section.

Logistician salary in Illinois by experience

Pay climbs steadily with experience in this field. Entry-level roles, the kind a recent grad or a career-changer lands first, cluster near the 10th and 25th percentiles. Mid-career workers sit around the median. The experienced and senior tiers, often supervisors, program leads, or specialists in regulated supply chains, reach the 75th and 90th percentiles. The table below maps BLS percentile data to typical career stages.

The jump from early career to mid career is the steepest single step, $16,800 between the 25th and 50th percentiles. That’s the payoff for moving from a coordinator or analyst role into one that owns a function, a route network, an inventory system, or a vendor relationship. From mid to experienced is another $20,520, and the move from experienced to senior adds $27,450. The clear takeaway: each tier rewards taking on scope and accountability, and the dollar gains get larger the higher you climb, not smaller.

Two things move you up this ladder faster than tenure alone. The first is a recognized supply-chain credential, which we cover in the earn-more section. The second is industry. A logistician who supports a regulated, high-stakes supply chain, pharmaceuticals, aerospace parts, or defense logistics, tends to sit higher in the range than one moving consumer goods, because the cost of a mistake is higher and the planning is more complex.

Put the dollars in monthly terms and the stakes get concrete. The 25th percentile of $63,300 works out to about $5,275 a month gross. The median of $80,100 is roughly $6,675 a month, and the 75th percentile of $100,620 is about $8,385. That’s a $3,110 monthly difference between an early-career coordinator and an experienced logistician owning real scope. For most people in this field, that single career step, from doing the work to owning the function, is worth more than any cost-of-living adjustment between Illinois metros. It’s the lever with the largest payoff, and it’s largely within your control through the credential and scope moves below.

One thing the percentile data hides is the role of employer size. Large Illinois employers, the national manufacturers, the big-box retailers running regional distribution centers, and the major third-party logistics firms, tend to have defined logistician pay bands with room to climb internally. Smaller shippers and regional carriers often pay closer to the median and cap out earlier. If you’re early in your career and aiming for the experienced or senior tiers, starting at a large employer with a real logistics function gives you more room to grow without changing jobs.

Logistician salary by Illinois metro

Where you work inside Illinois changes the number, and not always in the direction you’d expect. Chicago has the volume, more than 10,000 of the state’s logistician jobs, but it isn’t the top payer by median. Peoria leads on pay. The table covers the five largest metro markets in the state by employment.

Peoria tops the list at $85,930, about $6,030 above Chicago’s $79,900. The likely driver is heavy industry: Peoria’s logistician roles skew toward large manufacturers and their supply chains, where logistics planning is technical and well paid. Chicago, despite carrying roughly 72 percent of the state’s logistician jobs, pays a median right at the state line, because its market includes everything from entry-level warehouse coordination to senior network design, which pulls the median toward the middle.

Rockford and Bloomington land close together, $78,560 and $78,030, both within $2,100 of the state median. The outlier is Champaign-Urbana at $58,840, more than $21,000 below the state median and almost $27,000 below Peoria. That metro’s logistician pay reflects a smaller, more education- and ag-oriented economy with fewer of the large private-sector supply-chain operations that lift pay elsewhere. If you’re mobile and chasing the number, Peoria and the broader Chicago suburbs are where the math works best.

One caveat on the small metros: Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington, and Rockford each report fewer than 250 logisticians. Smaller samples move around more year to year, so treat those medians as directional rather than precise. Chicago’s figure, built on more than 10,000 jobs, is the most stable number on the table.

It’s worth pausing on what the Peoria premium really means before you pack a moving truck. Peoria’s $85,930 median is $5,830 above the state median of $80,100, but the metro carries only 570 logistician jobs against Chicago’s 10,220. So the higher pay comes with far fewer openings and less room to job-hop within the metro if a role doesn’t work out. The Chicago market trades a slightly lower median for depth: more employers, more industries, and a clearer ladder from coordinator to network designer. For a logistician early in their career, that depth often outweighs Peoria’s pay edge, because the next job is easier to find without relocating again.

The Champaign-Urbana figure deserves a direct read too. At $58,840 it sits $21,260 below the state median, the kind of gap that usually signals a different job mix rather than the same job paying less. University towns concentrate logistician roles in education, research, and smaller public-sector operations, which pay below the private manufacturing and distribution roles that drive Peoria and the Chicago suburbs. If you’re trained in private-sector supply chain and you take a Champaign role, expect the local market to price the work closer to that lower median, not the state figure.

Take-home pay after taxes in Illinois

Gross salary isn’t what hits your bank account. Illinois charges a flat 4.95 percent state income tax on top of federal income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare). The table below shows the full breakdown at four points in the career, using a single-filer estimate for tax year 2026.

At the median, a logistician grosses $80,100 and nets $60,771, an effective combined rate of about 24.1 percent. That’s $5,064 a month after federal, FICA, and Illinois state tax. The state’s flat 4.95 percent takes $3,965 of that median salary, and that single line is where the cross-state comparison gets interesting.

Illinois vs. a no-tax state. Take the same $80,100 median salary to Texas, which charges no state income tax, and the net rises to $64,736. In Illinois that figure is $60,771. The exact gap is $3,965 a year, which is precisely the Illinois state income tax on the median salary. Over a decade that’s nearly $40,000 in present-day dollars going to Springfield that a Texas logistician keeps. That’s the cleanest way to see what the flat tax costs you, and it’s a real number to weigh if you’re comparing offers across state lines.

The effective rate climbs as you earn more, which is the federal brackets at work. An entry-level logistician at $48,020 keeps about 79.6 percent of gross, netting $38,246. By the senior tier at $128,070, the effective rate reaches roughly 28.2 percent, so net is $91,949. In monthly terms that’s a climb from $3,187 take-home at entry to $7,662 at the 90th percentile, a $4,475 monthly difference in what actually lands in the account. The Illinois flat tax stays proportional the whole way, $2,377 at entry and $6,339 at senior, because the rate doesn’t change with income. What does change is the federal bite, which is why the experienced and senior tiers feel the tax more than the raw salary jump suggests.

That said, the tax gap isn’t the whole picture. The number that actually matters for your life is net pay minus local housing. A Texas logistician keeps $3,965 more on paper, but if housing in their metro costs more than that difference, the Illinois job leaves more in your pocket at month’s end. Run your own figure through the Illinois paycheck calculator with your real deductions, then subtract your actual rent or mortgage before you decide a no-tax state wins. When you file, software like TurboTax handles the Illinois flat-tax return alongside your federal forms.

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How to earn more as a logistician in Illinois

The data shows a $48,000 spread between the median and the 90th percentile in this state. Closing that gap is doable, and it usually comes down to credentials, scope, and industry choice. Concrete steps that move the number:

• Earn a recognized supply-chain credential. The APICS CPIM (Certified in Planning and Inventory Management) and CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional) are the two most-requested certifications in Illinois logistics postings. The CLTD (Certified in Logistics, Transportation and Distribution) is the most directly aligned with this role. Self-paced courses through Coursera can prepare you for the exams while you keep working.
• Move into a higher-paying industry. Illinois logisticians in pharmaceutical, aerospace, and defense supply chains sit toward the top of the range. Consumer-goods and third-party logistics roles tend to sit lower. A lateral move into a regulated industry can lift pay without a title change.
• Target Peoria and the Chicago industrial suburbs. Peoria’s $85,930 median beats Chicago’s by about $6,030. If you can relocate or work for an employer headquartered in the heavy-manufacturing corridor, the base pay is structurally higher.
• Take on network design or planning scope. The jump from coordination to owning a route network, a demand plan, or a vendor program is the single biggest pay step in the data, $16,800 from the 25th to the 50th percentile and more above that.
• Learn the analytics tools. Logisticians who can build in SQL, Tableau, or a transportation management system (TMS) and run optimization models command a premium over those who only coordinate. These are teachable skills, and they’re what separates the $80,000 role from the $100,000-plus one.
• Pursue a supervisory or program-lead track. The 90th percentile in Illinois is $128,070. Most roles at that level carry people-management or multi-site program responsibility. If your goal is the top tier, build toward managing logisticians, not just logistics.

Job outlook for logisticians in Illinois

Illinois employs 14,170 logisticians, with the heavy concentration, more than 10,000 jobs, in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro. That’s a function of geography. Chicago is one of the country’s largest freight and rail interchanges, a hub where truck, rail, and air cargo meet, which keeps steady demand for people who plan and move goods. Nationally, the logistician role has tracked alongside the growth of e-commerce and the push to make supply chains more resilient after recent disruptions, and Illinois’s position as a logistics gateway means the state should continue to carry a large share of these jobs.

The practical signal for job seekers: demand is concentrated where the freight is. Chicago and its industrial suburbs hold the volume, Peoria holds the pay premium, and the downstate metros offer fewer openings. If you’re searching, set alerts across multiple metros rather than one. A board like ZipRecruiter lets you compare logistician openings across Chicago, Peoria, and Rockford at once, which is the fastest way to see where the live demand and the better pay actually overlap right now.

Related and higher-paying roles in Illinois

Logistician skills, planning, analysis, and supply-chain coordination, transfer cleanly into adjacent roles that pay more in Illinois. Two stand out in the BLS data for this state:

• Management Analyst earns a median of $104,270 in Illinois, which is $24,170 more than a logistician’s $80,100 median here. Management analysts apply the same process-improvement and data skills to broader business problems, and the credential overlap with supply-chain analytics is high.
• Project Management Specialist earns a median of $103,470 in Illinois, which is $23,370 more than a logistician in Illinois. Logisticians who already run programs and coordinate cross-functional work are well positioned to step into formal project management, often with a PMP credential as the bridge.

Both moves keep you in the supply-chain and operations world while adding more than $23,000 to the median. They’re the most natural step up from this role in Illinois.

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, tax year 2026; ThePayGuide take-home estimates for a single filer. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.