Licensed Practical Nurse Salary in Illinois 2026:
$75,000 Median

Illinois licensed practical nurses earn a median $75,000 a year, $36.06 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $63,580 and $79,560 and a full range of $58,880 to $89,810. That median is 16.5% above the $64,400 national figure, one of the larger state premiums in the Midwest for this occupation.

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $78,070, then Peoria at $72,270, Rockford at $70,090, Bloomington at $67,270 and Decatur at $66,750. The eleven-thousand-dollar spread between the top and bottom of that list is much wider than the gap between the statewide quartiles, so geography moves LPN pay in Illinois more than seniority does.

Through the Board of Nursing at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. You complete an approved practical nursing programme, apply to IDFPR, pass the NCLEX-PN and clear the required background check. Illinois is a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact, so a multistate LPN licence held in another compact state permits practice in Illinois without a second licence.

Yes, with an additional approval. Illinois permits licensed practical nurses to perform defined intravenous therapy tasks after completing an approved IV-therapy course, within limits set by the Nurse Practice Act and by the employing facility's policy. It is one of the few discrete credential steps available to an Illinois LPN, and it is what opens infusion, dialysis and acute post-acute work near the state 75th percentile of $79,560.

Entirely. Illinois taxes wages at a flat 4.95% statewide and no Illinois municipality levies a local income tax, so the difference between the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin figure of $78,070 and the Decatur figure of $66,750 arrives intact rather than being clipped at a city line. Housing in the collar counties, not tax, is what eats into it.

Two forces. Illinois hospitals moved most bedside LPN work to registered nurses years ago, which shrank supply of low-paying entry posts and left the remaining LPN roles concentrated in skilled nursing and post-acute settings that must compete hard for staff. On top of that, a large share of Illinois healthcare employment sits under union contracts with scheduled wage steps, which lifts the floor: the state 10th percentile of $58,880 is unusually high relative to the median.

It is an annual figure built from a wage rate, and LPN annual earnings in Illinois depend heavily on hours. A large number of Illinois LPN positions in long-term care are scheduled below full time or built around 12-hour rotations with differentials, so two nurses on the same posted hourly rate can be thousands apart at year end. Read $36.06 an hour as the more stable of the two numbers.

They are the main mechanism above the median. Illinois facilities pay evening, night and weekend differentials on top of base scale, and the Chicago agency market pays a premium for short-notice coverage. An LPN working a night-weighted rotation with weekend rotation, or holding agency contracts across the collar counties, is how the state 90th percentile of $89,810 is reached — it is schedule, not title.