Illinois Paycheck Calculator 2026
This Illinois paycheck calculator shows what actually lands in your bank account each pay period in 2026. Enter your gross salary and the tool applies 2026 federal brackets, Social Security and Medicare, and Illinois withholding, then splits the result across weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly and monthly pay schedules. Illinois uses a flat personal income tax of 4.95% applied to taxable income after a state standard deduction of $0.
Illinois Paycheck Calculator
Your salary before any deductions.
How Illinois payroll withholding works
Every Illinois paycheck is reduced in the same order: pre-tax deductions first (401(k), HSA, employer health premiums), then federal income tax on what remains, then FICA on your full gross, then Illinois state withholding.
FICA is fixed nationwide in 2026: 6.2% Social Security on the first $184,500 of wages and 1.45% Medicare on everything, with an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax above $200,000. Only the state layer changes when you move, which is why two workers earning the same salary in Illinois and Indiana see different deposits.
Illinois has no separate city or county income tax, so the state figure above is the full sub-federal income tax you pay.
Pay frequency in Illinois
Most finance employers around Chicago run biweekly payroll (26 checks a year), while public-sector and salaried office roles often use semi-monthly (24 checks). Biweekly means two months each year contain three paychecks — a useful budgeting quirk if your rent is around $1,950.
Switching frequency does not change your annual tax; it only changes how withholding is spread. If your employer withholds per-period using annualized tables, a three-paycheck month can look artificially light on tax.
Budgeting a Chicago paycheck
Cost of living in Illinois sits 7% below the national average (index 93), median household income is $80,306, and a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago rents for roughly $1,950 a month.
Illinois is one of about a dozen states with a flat income tax — every worker pays the same 4.95% rate regardless of income level.
Local and payroll taxes Illinois adds on top
Illinois adds no state-mandated employee payroll deduction beyond FICA, so nothing extra is taken from your gross pay at the state level.
Illinois has no separate city or county income tax, so the state figure above is the full sub-federal income tax you pay.
Payroll systems apply these local layers automatically, so check a real Illinois pay stub against the estimate above: a missing local tax line is the usual reason a paycheck comes in lower than a state-only calculator suggests.
Working across a state line from Illinois
Illinois holds income-tax reciprocity agreements with Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin. If you commute between them, your wages are taxed only by your state of residence — file the exemption certificate with your employer so the wrong state is not withheld from every paycheck.
Remote and hybrid work complicates this further: most states tax income where the work is physically performed, so a Chicago resident spending part of the year at a client site in Indiana may owe a nonresident return there. Keep a day-count log if you split time between states.
The rest of your Illinois tax bill
Illinois charges a 6.25% state sales tax, homeowners pay an average effective property tax of 2.07% of market value, and the minimum wage in force during 2026 is $15.00 an hour.
Chicago's combined rate reaches 10.25%, among the highest in the country.
Income tax is only one part of a state's take. Illinois recovers revenue through sales and property tax as well, which is why headline income tax rates alone are a poor guide to how far a salary really goes. Illinois does not tax retirement income at all — Social Security, pensions, 401(k) and IRA withdrawals are exempt from the flat tax.
Illinois vs Indiana on the same salary
On a $75,000 salary, a single filer keeps about $57,880 a year in Illinois against roughly $59,343 in Indiana — a difference of $1,463, or $122 a month.
Effective combined rates are 22.8% in Illinois and 20.9% in Indiana. Set that gap against living costs: index 93 here versus 90 there, with property tax at 2.07% and 0.84% respectively.
Illinois income tax brackets 2026 (single filer)
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 and up | 4.95% |