Illinois Paycheck Calculator
Work out your take-home pay in Illinois after federal withholding, the 4.95% state flat tax, Social Security and Medicare. Enter a salary or an hourly rate, add your Form W-4 details and deductions, and see the net pay for every pay period — no sign-up, nothing stored.
Illinois Paycheck Calculator
- Gross pay $0 / yr$0.00
- Pre-tax deductions$0.00
- Federal income tax$0.00
- Illinois income tax flat 4.95%$0.00
- Social Security wage base reached$0.00
- Medicare$0.00
- Additional Medicare 0.9%$0.00
- After-tax deductions$0.00
- Total taxes$0.00
- Federal income tax$0
- Illinois income tax$0
- FICA (Social Security + Medicare)$0
- All taxes$0
- Take-home pay$0
How this Illinois paycheck calculator works
Payroll software does not guess. It follows a fixed sequence set out in IRS Publication 15-T and, for Illinois, in Booklet IL-700-T, and this calculator follows the same sequence step for step. That is why the number it produces should match your pay stub rather than merely approximate it.
The order matters, because each step changes the base the next step works from:
- Gross pay for the period. A salary divided by the number of pay periods, or hours multiplied by your rate with overtime at time and a half.
- Pre-tax deductions come off. A traditional 401(k) deferral reduces the wages subject to income tax but not the wages subject to FICA. Section 125 items — health, dental and vision premiums, FSA and HSA contributions — reduce both.
- Federal income tax withholding. The remaining wages are annualized, run through the rate schedule for your filing status, then reduced by the dependent credits from Step 3 of your Form W-4 and divided back down to the pay period.
- Illinois income tax. A flat 4.95% of wages, after subtracting the value of the allowances claimed on Form IL-W-4.
- FICA. Social Security at 6.2% until year-to-date wages reach $184,500, and Medicare at 1.45% on everything, with an extra 0.9% above $200,000 for a single filer.
- After-tax deductions. Roth 401(k) contributions, union dues, parking, a wage deduction order. What survives all of that is your net pay.
Every calculation on this site runs in JavaScript on your own device. No salary figure, filing status or deduction is sent to a server, logged, or stored anywhere. Close the tab and it is gone.
What actually comes out of an Illinois paycheck
Four line items account for nearly every dollar between gross and net. Understanding which is which is the difference between reading a pay stub and simply accepting it.
Federal income tax withholding
This is the largest and the most variable of the three taxes. It is not a flat percentage — your employer annualizes your pay, finds where that annual figure falls in the 2026 rate schedule for your filing status, and works back to a per-period amount. Because the schedule is progressive, the rate climbs as income rises: 10% on the first slice, then 12%, 22%, 24% and upward. A single filer earning $75,000 sits in the 22% marginal bracket but pays an effective federal rate closer to 13%, because only the last slice of income is taxed at 22%.
What you put on Form W-4 changes this number more than almost anything else. Claiming two children under 17 in Step 3 removes $4,400 of federal withholding across the year. Ticking the Step 2 multiple-jobs box roughly doubles the rate applied to the job that ticks it, on the assumption that a second income is stacking on top.
Illinois income tax — the 4.95% flat rate
Illinois is one of a small group of states with a single flat income tax rate, and the arithmetic is refreshingly simple: gross wages, minus the value of your IL-W-4 allowances, times 4.95%. There are no Illinois tax brackets to look up, no local surcharge to add and no city wage tax — Chicago, Naperville, Rockford and Cairo all withhold the same. A worker on $60,000 with no allowances pays $2,970 in Illinois income tax over the year, or $114.23 out of each bi-weekly paycheck.
Each basic allowance on Line 1 of Form IL-W-4 shelters $2,925 of wages in 2026, which is worth about $145 of tax. Each additional allowance on Line 2 — for being 65 or older, or legally blind — shelters $1,000. The IL-W-4 guide covers how many you can legitimately claim.
FICA: Social Security and Medicare
FICA is the one deduction that hits almost every worker at the same rate. Social Security takes 6.2% of wages up to the annual wage base, which rose to $184,500 for 2026; earn more than that and Social Security stops coming out for the rest of the year, which is why some high earners see their December paychecks jump. Medicare takes 1.45% with no ceiling at all, plus an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for a single filer or $250,000 for a couple filing jointly. Your employer matches the 6.2% and the 1.45% but not the additional 0.9%.
Crucially, a traditional 401(k) contribution does not reduce FICA. Only Section 125 cafeteria-plan deductions do. That is why an HSA contribution made through payroll is worth noticeably more than the same dollar put into a 401(k).
Pre-tax and after-tax deductions
The distinction is worth real money. A pre-tax deduction is taken from gross pay before tax is calculated, so a $200 health premium costs a 22%-bracket Illinois worker about $137 of take-home pay rather than $200. An after-tax deduction — a Roth 401(k), union dues, a garnishment — comes out of money that has already been taxed, so a $200 deduction costs the full $200.
Take-home pay on common Illinois salaries
The table below runs each salary through the same engine as the calculator, assuming no dependents, no pre-tax deductions and a bi-weekly pay schedule. Switch the filing status to see how much a joint return changes the federal side while the Illinois figure stays proportional.
| Gross salary | Federal tax | Illinois tax | FICA | Take-home | Monthly | Effective rate |
|---|
If you want the breakdown for one specific figure rather than the whole range, the salary after taxes page works through $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 and $100,000 line by line, including what each is worth per hour.
How to read your Illinois pay stub
Illinois employers must give you a pay stub showing hours worked, the rate of pay, gross wages, every deduction and year-to-date totals. The labels vary by payroll provider, but the substance does not:
| What you'll see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Gross Pay / Total Earnings | Everything you earned this period before anything comes out — regular, overtime, bonus, commission. |
| FED / FIT / Fed W/H | Federal income tax withheld under your Form W-4. |
| IL / SIT / State W/H | Illinois income tax at 4.95% after IL-W-4 allowances. |
| FICA-OASDI / SS | Social Security, 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base. |
| FICA-HI / Med | Medicare, 1.45% on all wages. |
| Sec 125 / Pre-Tax Med | Health, dental or vision premiums taken before tax. |
| YTD | Year-to-date running totals — the column to check when you think withholding has gone wrong. |
| Net Pay | What actually reaches your bank account. |
Under the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act most employees must be paid at least semi-monthly, with wages due within 13 days of the end of the pay period. Executive, administrative and professional employees may be paid monthly.
Four things that change your Illinois take-home pay
Your Form W-4. A large refund is not a windfall — it is over-withholding you could have had in each paycheck. Revisit the form after a marriage, a birth, a second job or a spouse's job change.
Pre-tax benefits. Section 125 premiums, an FSA and a payroll HSA contribution avoid federal tax, Illinois tax and FICA. That combination is worth around 30 cents on the dollar for a typical Illinois earner, which is a better return than most people get on anything else in their benefits package.
Retirement contributions. A traditional 401(k) reduces income tax now, a Roth 401(k) does not but grows tax-free. Illinois does not tax either one on the way out, which quietly tilts the math toward traditional contributions for people who intend to retire in the state.
Pay frequency. Switching between weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly and monthly does not change your annual tax. It changes only how the same total is sliced up — though a bi-weekly schedule delivers 26 paychecks a year rather than 24, so two months feel unusually generous.
The 2026 figures behind every calculation
| Item | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Illinois income tax rate | 4.95% | 4.95% |
| Illinois personal exemption | $2,925 | $2,850 |
| Social Security wage base | $184,500 | $176,100 |
| Social Security rate (employee) | 6.2% | 6.2% |
| Medicare rate (employee) | 1.45% | 1.45% |
| Additional Medicare threshold (single) | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| Federal supplemental wage rate | 22% | 22% |
| Federal standard deduction, withholding tables (single) | $16,100 | $15,000 |
| Federal standard deduction, withholding tables (joint) | $32,200 | $30,000 |
| Illinois minimum wage | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| Illinois SUI taxable wage base | $14,250 | $13,916 |
How this compares with the other Illinois paycheck calculators
Most people arrive here having already tried one of the big-brand tools. They are good calculators, and it is worth knowing what each is actually built for, because the differences explain why two of them can hand you different numbers on the same salary.
| Tool | Built for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| ADP Illinois paycheck calculator | Employers running payroll | Employer-first framing, and the salary and hourly calculators live on separate pages |
| SmartAsset Illinois paycheck calculator | Consumers planning a budget | Strong editorial context; results are annual-first rather than per-paycheck |
| PaycheckCity Illinois calculator | Payroll professionals | The most granular deduction handling, with a longer form to fill in |
| Gusto Illinois hourly calculator | Small-business owners | Wrapped in employer compliance guidance rather than employee take-home detail |
| This calculator | Both, in one place | Salary and hourly in the same tool, 2024–2026 tax years, and nothing leaves your browser |
When two calculators disagree, the cause is almost always one of three things: a different tax year, a different treatment of the Form W-4 Step 2 checkbox, or one of them applying the flat 22% supplemental rate to a bonus while the other folds it into regular wages. None of those is a mistake — they are different assumptions, and knowing which one changed is usually enough to reconcile the two figures.
More Illinois calculators
Each tool shares the same tax engine, so a figure you get here will agree with the figure you get there.
Hourly paycheck calculator
Regular hours, overtime at time and a half, double time and a second pay rate — all in one paycheck.
Salary & take-home calculator
Turn an annual salary into weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly and monthly net pay.
Bonus tax calculator
See what a bonus is worth after the flat 22% federal supplemental rate and Illinois withholding.
Self-employment tax calculator
1099 and Schedule C income: SE tax, federal tax, Illinois tax and your quarterly estimated payment.
Unemployment benefits calculator
Estimate your IDES weekly benefit amount from your base-period wages and dependent status.
Wage garnishment calculator
Work out the most a judgment creditor can take under the Illinois 15% and 45× minimum wage tests.
People also ask about Illinois paychecks
For most Illinois workers the total bite is somewhere between 17% and 30% of gross pay. Three separate taxes are doing the work: federal income tax withholding on a sliding scale, the Illinois flat income tax of 4.95%, and FICA at 7.65% (6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare). Someone earning $75,000 a year as a single filer with no dependents keeps roughly $57,880, an effective rate of about 23%. There is no city or county wage tax to add on top anywhere in the state.
Illinois taxes wage income at a flat 4.95%, the same rate that has applied since July 2017. It does not matter whether you earn $30,000 or $300,000 — the percentage is identical, which is why the state has no tax brackets. The one adjustment is the personal exemption allowance, which is $2,925 per exemption for 2026 and is subtracted from wages before the 4.95% is applied. Our Illinois income tax rate guide walks through how that plays out on a real paycheck.
No. Chicago does not levy an income tax on wages, and neither does Cook County or any other Illinois municipality. The Illinois Constitution allows a home-rule unit to impose an income tax only if the General Assembly authorizes it, and the legislature has never done so. What is higher in Chicago is the sales tax and the local minimum wage — not your withholding. A Chicago paycheck and a Springfield paycheck at the same salary come out to the same net pay.
Start with gross pay for the period, subtract pre-tax items such as a traditional 401(k) deferral and Section 125 health premiums, then apply the three taxes. Federal withholding follows the tables in IRS Publication 15-T using the filing status and dependent credits on your Form W-4. Illinois withholding is 4.95% of wages after subtracting the allowances you claimed on Form IL-W-4. Social Security takes 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base and Medicare 1.45% with no cap. Whatever remains, less any after-tax deductions, is your net pay — and that is exactly the sequence the calculator above runs.
Three things move it. The IRS adjusts the bracket thresholds and the standard deduction for inflation each January, so the same salary produces slightly less federal withholding year over year. Your Form W-4 matters more than most people expect — ticking the Step 2 multiple-jobs box roughly doubles the rate at which your wages are taxed, and each child claimed in Step 3 cuts annual withholding by $2,200. Finally, a raise or a bonus paid mid-year annualizes into a higher figure. If the number surprises you, compare the paycheck against a fresh W-4 in the calculator before assuming payroll made an error.
They are withheld differently, not taxed differently. When a bonus is paid on a separate paycheck, employers usually apply the federal flat supplemental rate of 22% plus Illinois at 4.95% and FICA at 7.65% — about 34.6% withheld in total. That is a withholding rule, not a tax rule: at filing time the bonus is ordinary income like any other wage, so if 22% was more than your real bracket you get the difference back as a refund. The bonus tax calculator shows both the percentage method and the aggregate method side by side.
No, and this is one of the more valuable quirks of the Illinois tax code. Illinois subtracts federally taxed retirement income out of its base — qualified employee plan distributions, IRA and SEP withdrawals, government pensions, railroad retirement and Social Security benefits all come off on Line 5 of Form IL-1040. A retiree drawing $60,000 from a 401(k) in Illinois pays $0 in state income tax on it. Wages, however, are fully taxable while you are still working.
Illinois has reciprocal agreements with Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin. If you live in Illinois and work in one of those four, your employer should withhold Illinois tax rather than the other state's, and you file only Form IL-1040. If you work in a non-reciprocal state such as Indiana or Missouri, that state withholds its own tax and Illinois gives you a credit for taxes paid to the other state so the same income is not taxed twice. Reverse the situation — living in one of the four reciprocal states and working in Illinois — and you file Form IL-W-5-NR with your Illinois employer to stop Illinois withholding.
It runs the same two methods your employer's payroll system runs: the percentage method for automated payroll systems in IRS Publication 15-T for federal withholding, and Booklet IL-700-T for Illinois. Enter the same figures that appear on your Form W-4 and Form IL-W-4 and the result should land within a dollar or two of your actual pay stub. Differences usually trace back to a benefit deduction you have forgotten about, a mid-year pay change your employer is annualizing differently, or an employer that rounds withholding to whole dollars.
The lever with the largest effect is your Form W-4 — if you are getting a large refund every April, you are lending money to the government interest-free, and adjusting Step 3 or Step 4(b) puts that cash back in each paycheck. Beyond that, pre-tax contributions do double duty: a Section 125 health premium or HSA contribution escapes federal tax, Illinois tax and FICA, so it is worth roughly 30 cents on the dollar. A traditional 401(k) deferral cuts income tax but not FICA. Just be careful not to under-withhold into a bill you cannot pay in April.
Sources
- Illinois Department of Revenue — Booklet IL-700-T, 2026 withholding tax tables
- IDOR Informational Bulletin FY 2026-15 — personal exemption allowance
- IRS Publication 15-T — Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods
- IRS — 2026 inflation adjustments
- Social Security Administration — 2026 wage base and COLA
This calculator produces estimates for planning purposes. It is not tax, legal or accounting advice, and it cannot account for every circumstance — multi-state work, equity compensation, court-ordered deductions and mid-year status changes all shift the result. For a binding figure, consult a licensed tax professional or the Illinois Department of Revenue.