BLS OEWS May 2025 · SOC 27-1024 · 8,960 IL workers
Graphic Designer Salary in Illinois 2026, $62,560 Median | BLS Data by City
Illinois carries 15% more graphic designers per worker than the country as a whole, and Chicago's advertising, publishing and consumer-brand base is why. It is also why the state median sits fractionally below the national one: this is a deep market, and depth is not the same thing as scarcity.
Updated July 2026 · BLS OEWS May 2025
Compiled by GlobalCybers Labor Market Research · Reviewed by GlobalCybers Data Desk, Wage data review · See methodology & sources →
IL Median
$62,560
$30.08/hr
vs National
−$400
0.6% below US median
IL P90
$98,750
$47.48/hr · top earners
IL Job Growth
+2.1%
2024–2034 · national BLS EP 2024–34
🤑Illinois's flat 4.95% income tax is felt more sharply at the bottom of this occupation than the top, because a designer at the $36,060 tenth percentile pays the same marginal rate as one at the $98,750 ninetieth, where a graduated schedule would charge less at the low end; the $2,925 personal exemption allowance in 2026 is the only offset. For the large freelance segment of Illinois design, the more consequential point is self-employment: Illinois-resident freelancers make quarterly estimated payments at that same flat rate on top of federal self-employment tax, and no Illinois city adds a wage or earnings tax.
Direct Answer
How much do graphic designers make in Illinois in 2026?
Illinois graphic designers earn a median $62,560 a year, or $30.08 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, 0.6% below the $62,960 national median — effectively level. The Illinois range runs $36,060 at the 10th percentile to $98,750 at the 90th, with a 25th percentile of $47,530 and a 75th of $81,320. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin leads the metro table at $66,490, then Champaign-Urbana at $60,200, Bloomington at $57,230, Peoria at $56,450 and Springfield at $55,220. → Full graphic designer career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $62,560 blends every experience level, apprentice through master. For pay by license level alone, see pay by level below.
Key takeaways
Illinois graphic designers earn a median $62,560/yr ($30.08/hr) per BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 27-1024), 0.6% below the $62,960 national median; the state P10–P90 range is $36,060 to $98,750.
Illinois's location quotient of 1.15 reflects Chicago's advertising, publishing and consumer-brand cluster. The state supports about 8,960 graphic designers, and the depth of that pool is why the median lands level with the national figure rather than above it.
The Illinois range is wide for a design occupation — $36,060 at the 10th percentile to $98,750 at the 90th. The bottom is production and junior agency work; the top is senior in-house design and creative direction at Chicago brands and agencies.
Illinois's Freelance Worker Protection Act is the state-specific fact that matters most in this occupation. It requires written contracts for freelance work above a threshold and sets deadlines for payment — meaningful in a market where a large share of design work is contracted rather than salaried.
Illinois Graphic Designer Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
$36,060
P10
$47,530
P25
$62,560
Median
$81,320
P75
$98,750
P90
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025
Methodology & Sources
How the Illinois graphic designer pay figures on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 27-1024, 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 graphic designer in Illinois, step by step
1
Start in production or junior agency design
The Illinois entry route is production art and asset work at a Chicago agency, print operation or small in-house team, around the state 10th percentile of $36,060.
2
Build a portfolio and a category
Illinois issues no design licence, so portfolio and category fit are everything — Chicago's CPG, publishing, healthcare and B2B markets each hire on their own conventions. This is what puts a designer at the state median of $62,560.
3
Take concept and brand-system ownership
Owning concepts and a brand's design system rather than executing someone else's is the Illinois move that reaches the state 75th percentile of $81,320.
4
Move into art direction or design leadership
Creative direction or leading an in-house design team at a Chicago-headquartered brand reaches the Illinois 90th percentile of $98,750. If you freelance instead, use the Freelance Worker Protection Act's written-contract requirement to protect the rate.
None License Levels
How much do the graphic designer credential levels pay in Illinois?
Illinois licenses issued by No state licence — Illinois does not license graphic designers and IDFPR issues no design credential. Employers screen almost entirely on portfolio, on tool fluency across the Adobe suite and Figma, and on category fit; the Illinois-specific wrinkle is contractual rather than regulatory, since a large share of Chicago design work is freelance and Illinois's Freelance Worker Protection Act now requires written contracts and sets payment deadlines for that work.. Each level's median pay in Illinois markets.
None License
IL Pay Range
IL Median
Key Note
Junior or production designer
$33K–$48K
$36,060
Around the Illinois 10th percentile of $36,060. Production art, template and asset work at a Chicago agency, a print operation or a small in-house team.
Graphic designer
$48K–$81K
$62,560
The Illinois median of $62,560. Owning design execution across campaigns or a brand's assets, in an agency or an in-house Illinois team.
Senior designer
$77K–$99K
$81,320
Around the Illinois 75th percentile of $81,320. Concept ownership, brand system stewardship and mentoring, usually in the Chicago market where the metro median is $66,490.
Art director or design lead
$95K–$120K
$98,750
The Illinois 90th percentile of $98,750. Creative direction, design leadership of a team, or a senior in-house design role at a Chicago-headquartered brand.
Beyond Base Pay
What's a Illinois graphic designer's total compensation, not just base wage?
BLS and verified-placement medians above are base wage only. Total comp for an IL graphic designer typically adds the following on top.
Illinois graphic designers earn a median $62,560 a year, $30.08 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $47,530 and $81,320 and a full range of $36,060 to $98,750. That is 0.6% below the $62,960 national median, effectively level with the US market despite Chicago's size.
Which Illinois city pays graphic designers the most?
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $66,490, then Champaign-Urbana at $60,200, Bloomington at $57,230, Peoria at $56,450 and Springfield at $55,220. Chicago's roughly eleven-thousand-dollar lead over Springfield is the largest geographic effect in this occupation, and it reflects agency and brand work that downstate metros simply do not have.
Do graphic designers need a licence in Illinois?
No. Illinois licenses nothing in this occupation and IDFPR issues no design credential. Hiring runs on portfolio, tool fluency across the Adobe suite and Figma, and category fit — Chicago's consumer packaged goods, publishing, healthcare and B2B design markets each have their own conventions, and portfolios do not always transfer between them cleanly.
What protections do Illinois freelance designers have?
More than in most states. Illinois's Freelance Worker Protection Act requires a written contract for freelance engagements above a set threshold, specifies what the contract must contain, and sets deadlines by which the hiring party must pay. Because a substantial share of Illinois graphic design is contracted rather than salaried, this is the single most useful piece of state law for designers here to know.
Is Chicago worth it for a designer given the flat state tax?
The wage table says yes and the tax is neutral. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin's $66,490 is around four thousand above the state median, Illinois applies the same 4.95% everywhere and no Illinois city levies a wage tax, so the whole premium arrives intact. The real question is housing: the Chicago collar counties cost considerably more than Champaign-Urbana or Peoria, and at the lower end of this occupation's range that matters a lot.
Why does a state with 15% above-average design employment pay at the national median?
Because Chicago attracts designers as fast as it hires them. Advertising, publishing and consumer brand headquarters give Illinois an unusually deep design market, and the city's art and design schools plus its reputation keep supply replenished. The result is a location quotient of 1.15 with a median of $62,560, level with the national figure — you get more employers to choose from here, not a higher price.
What is the honest caveat about the Illinois graphic designer median?
It undercounts freelance reality. OEWS surveys employers, so the substantial Illinois population of self-employed and contract designers is captured only where an agency or staffing firm is the employer of record. Freelance day rates in the Chicago market do not map neatly onto this distribution, and someone weighing an in-house offer against contract work should not treat $62,560 as a like-for-like comparison.
What actually separates the Illinois 75th and 90th percentiles from the median?
Scope and specialisation. The step from the Illinois median of $62,560 to the $81,320 seventy-fifth percentile is normally concept ownership and brand-system responsibility rather than execution, and it is usually a Chicago move. The step to the $98,750 ninetieth is art direction or design leadership — managing a team or owning a brand's creative output. Motion, digital product and packaging specialisation reach those bands faster than general graphic design does.
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Outlook & openings: BLS projects 2.1% national growth for graphic designers through 2034, and Illinois's 4.5% share of national employment works out to roughly 910 openings a year, pro-rated from the national average annual openings figure. Illinois holds a larger share of US graphic design jobs than of US employment overall, but the composition is shifting: agency production roles have thinned, while in-house design teams at Chicago consumer brands, health systems and B2B companies have grown, and digital product and motion skills increasingly separate the top of the Illinois range from the bottom.
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