Illinois RN Salary - How Much Do RNs Make in IL?

Illinois employs the seventh largest number of registered nurses in the United States. 109,480 RNs worked in this state in May 2018 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The Chicago-Naperville-Joliet area was the third largest metropolitan employer of registered nurses in the nation at the time of this report. This area employed about 69,050 RNs.

The median annual salary for registered nurses in Illinois was $64,890 in 2018. This is slightly lower than the national average of $65,470 per year. In this state, RNs with earnings in the top tenth percentile were paid $93,140 or more. 25 percent of Illinois RNs earned $78,280 or more in this year. RNs with earnings in the bottom tenth percentile were paid $44,270 or less. According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC), the cost of living was about 4.5 percent below the national average. This difference makes up for the slightly lower average salary.

The city of Illinois with the highest average registered nursing salary is the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metropolitan area. At the time of the BLS report, the average in this area was $70,060. RN salaries ranged from below $50,280 to above $96,130. The cost of living in this area is also higher than in other parts of the state and the country. The only other area of the state with an average salary above the national average for this occupation is the Kankakee-Bradley area.The lowest paying city for registered nurses is Peoria, Illinois with an average RN salary of $54,820. In this city, only 25 percent of RNs make over $59,740, while 25 percent makes $49,870 or less. According to Forbes, the cost of living in Peoria is about 13 percent below the national average. Other lower paying cities include the Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area, Danville, and Rockford.

Resources

• https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series
• https://www.forbes.com/places/il/peoria/