Cardiologist Salary in Illinois 2026, $517,850 Median | BLS Data by City
Illinois's statewide cardiology median sits above its Chicago metro median, which is the opposite of what most people expect and is the most useful thing on this page. In a state with only about half the national concentration of cardiologists, the money is where the recruiting is hardest — and that is not the Loop.
Updated July 2026 · BLS OEWS May 2025
Compiled by GlobalCybers Labor Market Research · Reviewed by Karen Osei, RN, BSN, Clinical Recruitment Lead · See methodology & sources →
IL Median
$517,850
$248.97/hr
vs National
+$21,840
4.4% above US median
IL P90
$749,550
$360.36/hr · top earners
IL Job Growth
+4.1%
2024–2034 · national BLS EP 2024–34
🤑Illinois's flat 4.95% income tax is worth a great deal at cardiology income levels: a cardiologist at the Illinois 75th percentile of $685,610 pays the same marginal rate as one at the 25th percentile of $356,070, where a graduated state schedule would take a substantially larger share at the top. No Illinois municipality levies a wage tax, so a Chicago-based practice carries no city surcharge. For cardiologists in private or physician-owned groups, Illinois's pass-through entity tax election is the structural planning point worth raising with an accountant. The 2026 personal exemption allowance is $2,925.
Direct Answer
How much do cardiologists make in Illinois in 2026?
Illinois cardiologists earn a median $517,850 a year per BLS OEWS May 2025, 4.4% above the $496,010 national median. The Illinois range is enormous: $119,280 at the 10th percentile to $749,550 at the 90th, with a 25th percentile of $356,070 and a 75th of $685,610. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin reports $475,590 — below the statewide figure of $517,850 — and BLS does not publish a cardiology median for Champaign-Urbana. Illinois employs about 340 cardiologists in the survey frame, a location quotient of 0.51. → Full cardiologist career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $517,850 blends every experience level, apprentice through master. For pay by license level alone, see pay by level below.
Key takeaways
Illinois cardiologists earn a median $517,850/yr ($248.97/hr) per BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 29-1212), 4.4% above the $496,010 national median; the state P10–P90 range is $119,280 to $749,550.
The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin figure of $475,590 sits below the Illinois statewide median of $517,850. Illinois cardiology pays a premium away from its largest metro, because that is where the recruiting difficulty is.
Illinois has a location quotient of 0.51 for cardiologists — roughly half the national concentration, on a base of about 340 in the survey frame. That thin supply is what supports a statewide figure above the US median.
The $119,280 tenth percentile against the $749,550 ninetieth is one of the widest spreads in the OEWS file. It separates academic and fellowship-adjacent appointments in the Chicago teaching hospitals from interventional and electrophysiology practice at volume.
Illinois Cardiologist Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
$119,280
P10
$356,070
P25
$517,850
Median
$685,610
P75
$749,550
P90
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025
Methodology & Sources
How the Illinois cardiologist pay figures on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-1212, Illinois statewide estimate. Public, methodologically rigorous, but sampled on a rolling 3-year basis and published ~10 months after collection — so it reflects wages that are already 1–2 years old by the time you read them. OEWS publishes one blended wage for the whole occupation in Illinois; it does not break pay out by credential or licence level.
Pay by level: the level and career-stage tables on this page distribute Illinois's own published BLS pay range across the tiers employers actually hire at. They are GlobalCybers estimates aligned to published percentiles, not separate BLS publications.
Placement sample: GlobalCybers holds no Illinois placement sample for this occupation, so this page shows published and percentile-aligned figures only — no placement-based median is claimed anywhere on it.
How to become a licensed cardiologist in Illinois, step by step
1
Obtain the Illinois physician and surgeon licence
The IDFPR Medical Licensing Board issues the licence after accredited internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship. Academic and early-career Chicago appointments start near the Illinois 10th percentile of $119,280.
Board certification is what Illinois health systems screen on for clinical cardiology appointments, which sit around the state 25th percentile of $356,070 and above.
3
Take a post outside the Chicago metro
Illinois's statewide median of $517,850 exceeds the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin figure of $475,590 because non-Chicago health systems must bid harder. Moving out of the Chicago market is a genuine Illinois pay strategy in this specialty.
4
Add interventional or electrophysiology subspecialty and procedural volume
Structural heart, complex intervention and electrophysiology practice, or service-line medical direction, is what reaches the Illinois 75th percentile of $685,610 and the 90th of $749,550.
IDFPR License Levels
How much do the cardiologist credential levels pay in Illinois?
Illinois licenses issued by Illinois physician and surgeon licence (IDFPR Medical Licensing Board) — Illinois licenses cardiologists as physicians and issues no cardiology-specific licence. The Medical Licensing Board grants the licence after medical school, accredited residency and the USMLE or COMLEX sequence; subspecialty standing comes from the American Board of Internal Medicine's cardiovascular disease certification, which the state does not administer.. Each level's median pay in Illinois markets.
IDFPR License
IL Pay Range
IL Median
Key Note
Academic or early-career cardiologist
$110K–$356K
$119,280
Around the Illinois 10th percentile of $119,280. Fellowship-adjacent, part-time or academic appointments in the Chicago teaching hospitals, where cash pay is traded against research and teaching time.
General clinical cardiologist
$356K–$686K
$517,850
Around the Illinois 25th percentile of $356,070. A non-invasive clinical cardiology appointment in a health system or a hospital-employed group.
Interventional or established cardiologist
$651K–$750K
$685,610
The Illinois median of $517,850. Catheterisation-lab practice or established general cardiology with procedural volume, frequently outside the Chicago metro where recruitment pressure is greatest.
High-volume interventional or electrophysiology practice
$720K–$914K
$749,550
Around the Illinois 75th percentile of $685,610, up to the 90th at $749,550. Structural heart, complex intervention and electrophysiology practice, or service-line medical direction.
Beyond Base Pay
What's a Illinois cardiologist's total compensation, not just base wage?
BLS and verified-placement medians above are base wage only. Total comp for an IL cardiologist typically adds the following on top.
Illinois cardiologists earn a median $517,850 a year per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $356,070 and $685,610 and a full range of $119,280 to $749,550. That median is 4.4% above the $496,010 national figure, which is notable for a state that employs only about 340 cardiologists in the survey frame.
Which Illinois city pays cardiologists the most?
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is the only Illinois metro with a published cardiology median, and at $475,590 it sits below the Illinois statewide figure of $517,850. BLS does not publish a figure for Champaign-Urbana. The practical reading is that cardiology in Illinois pays better away from Chicago, which is unusual for a physician specialty.
Do cardiologists need a special licence in Illinois?
No. Illinois licenses cardiologists as physicians through the Medical Licensing Board at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, and there is no cardiology-specific state licence. Subspecialty standing comes from the American Board of Internal Medicine's cardiovascular disease certification and its interventional and electrophysiology subspecialties, which are national credentials that Illinois does not administer.
Why does Illinois pay cardiologists more than Chicago does?
Because Chicago is where cardiologists want to be. The city's academic medical centres and large health systems can recruit on reputation, training opportunity and location, so they do not need to bid as hard. Health systems in the rest of Illinois — a state already at half the national cardiologist concentration — have no such advantage and must compete on compensation, which lifts the statewide median above the Chicago metro figure.
Does the Illinois flat tax make a real difference to a cardiologist?
At these income levels, yes. Illinois applies 4.95% to every dollar, so a cardiologist at the Illinois 75th percentile of $685,610 faces the same rate as one at $356,070. Against a graduated-rate state, the difference at the top of this occupation's range is substantial, and no Illinois city adds a local income tax on top of it.
What explains a $119,280 tenth percentile in a specialty like this?
Academic and part-time appointments, and the way OEWS records annualised wages. Chicago's teaching hospitals employ cardiologists on academic tracks where a share of the compensation is research funding, protected time and institutional benefits rather than clinical salary, and part-year or part-time appointments annualise low. It is not evidence that any full-time clinical cardiologist in Illinois earns near that figure.
What is the honest caveat about these Illinois numbers?
The sample is small — roughly 340 cardiologists statewide in the survey frame, with only one metro published. Estimates built on samples that size move noticeably between vintages, and the Chicago row and the state row disagreeing by more than forty thousand dollars is itself a sign of how sensitive the figures are. Read the structural point — thin supply, downstate premium, very wide spread — as far more durable than any individual number.
How does call and procedural volume set Illinois cardiology pay?
Almost entirely, above the median. Illinois cardiology compensation in hospital-employed groups is usually a base plus productivity model, with catheterisation-lab volume, structural heart and electrophysiology procedures carrying the highest relative value, and call coverage adding a stipend on top. The distance from the Illinois median of $517,850 to the 75th percentile of $685,610 is procedural mix and call burden far more than it is seniority.
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Outlook & openings: BLS projects 4.1% national growth for cardiologists through 2034, and Illinois's 2.0% share of national employment works out to roughly 10 openings a year, pro-rated from the national average annual openings figure. That is a tiny number in absolute terms and it understates the market: with a location quotient of 0.51, Illinois already runs well below national cardiology density, and the binding constraint here is recruitment into non-Chicago health systems rather than the creation of new posts.
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