Accountants and Auditors Average Salary in Illinois
$88,910 average · $88,910 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 13-2011What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Accountants and Auditors in Illinois, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
How much do Accountants and Auditors make in Illinois?
The average accountants and auditors salary in Illinois is $88,910 per year. That works out to about $42.75 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 54,930 accountants and auditors jobs in Illinois.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $88,910. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $88,910; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $88,910 — a 0% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Business and Financial Operations Careers Are Structured
Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how accountants and auditors pay is distributed in Illinois specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
Entry typically requires a bachelor's degree, but the field is unusually open to career-changers because the core skills — analysis, communication, process discipline — transfer across industries. Early-career workers should weight employers by what they teach: two years in a rigorous environment moves you up this distribution faster than five in a lax one.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Accountants and Auditors Do?
Accountants and Auditors positions belong to the business and financial operations field. Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 13-2011
Accountants and Auditors pay in Illinois
In Illinois, accountants and auditors report a median of $88,910 (about $42.75/hour) across roughly 54,930 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $88,910 at the 10th percentile to $88,910 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons Illinois wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
What your paycheck is really worth in Illinois
Prices in Illinois run 0% below the national average (RPP 100.0). So a nominal salary of $88,910 has the buying power of about $88,947 in national terms.
Illinois vs. United States for Accountants and Auditors
The median accountants and auditors salary in Illinois is $88,910, which is -6.7% below the national median of $95,250 (mean pay is -5.8% below the U.S. mean of $94,419). Among 51 states and D.C. with OEWS data, Illinois ranks #22 by median wage for this occupation. Illinois accounts for about 0.7% of U.S. accountants and auditors employment in the latest OEWS release.
See every state ranked for this occupation on the best-paying states page, or compare purchasing power on real wages.
Income reality check
The median salary for Accountants and Auditors in Illinois of $88,910 falls in the Comfortable band of this framework - roughly ~12% of the U.S. population and ~7% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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Official BLS Employment Projections for Accountants and Auditors
Skills & What You Do
Most occupations require a bachelor's degree
- Prepare and examine financial records
- Ensure taxes are paid on time
- Assess financial operations
- Recommend cost reductions
Accountants And Auditors in Other States
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Viewing: Accountants and Auditors (SOC: 13-2011)