Plumber Salary in Illinois 2026,
$99,950 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Illinois figure is $99,950 a year, or $48.05 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $50,250 at the 10th percentile to $126,430 at the 90th and quartiles at $72,070 and $120,050. That is 56.7% above the national median of $63,800 — the largest state premium of any occupation in this tranche. The row is SOC 47-2152.

The Illinois Department of Public Health, not the general professional licensing agency. The placement reflects what the licence is for: plumbing protects the potable water supply and the public health consequences of defective work are the reason the state regulates it. Licensure requires a registered apprenticeship under a licensed plumber and passing the state examination, and it is a genuine statewide supply barrier.

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $103,380, then Champaign-Urbana $95,530, Springfield $94,370, Rockford $94,230 and Peoria $85,090. Every one of those is far above the national median of $63,800, so the Illinois premium is statewide rather than a Chicago effect — though Chicago leads, as the density of organised building trades there would suggest.

Two things reinforcing each other. A state licence administered by the Department of Public Health, requiring a registered apprenticeship and examination, restricts supply — an unlicensed person cannot simply take plumbing work in Illinois. And the Chicago building trades are among the most densely organised in the country, so wages are set by agreement rather than individually. Compare Florida, where journeyman licensing is fragmented across counties and the published median sits 9.4% below the national figure.

A bargained scale. The $120,050 seventy-fifth percentile and $126,430 ninetieth sit close together, which is what happens when journeyman, foreman and superintendent rates are defined steps in an agreement rather than outcomes of individual negotiation. The practical implication is that the ceiling is visible and reachable within a normal career, and that further earnings above it come from overtime and from contracting rather than from progression through grades.

Because the licence exists to protect drinking water, not to certify craftsmanship. Cross-connections, backflow and defective drainage are public health hazards that the occupant of a building cannot inspect or evaluate, and Illinois's placement of plumbing licensure with the Department of Public Health makes that rationale explicit in a way most states' arrangements do not. The consequence for the labour market is the same as any genuine licence: entry requires a registered apprenticeship and a state examination, supply cannot expand faster than apprentices complete, and licensed plumbers are bid for in a constrained market. That is one half of the explanation for a 56.7% premium.

Organisation. The Chicago building trades are among the most densely organised in the United States, and plumbing is among the most organised of them. Where wages are set by collective agreement rather than individually, the whole distribution shifts up and compresses at the top — which is exactly the shape this band has, with a $72,070 twenty-fifth percentile far above the national median for the entire occupation and a $120,050 to $126,430 upper range only about five percent wide. That the premium extends statewide, with Champaign-Urbana at $95,530 and Rockford at $94,230, reflects agreements that reach beyond the metropolitan area.

That the entry cost is real and the payoff is large. A registered apprenticeship runs several years at the $50,250-to-$72,070 part of the band before the state examination, and apprenticeship intakes are competitive rather than open. Against that, a licensed Illinois plumber earns a median of $99,950 with no degree, on a flat 4.95% state income tax with no municipal layer, in a market with about 1,580 pro-rated annual openings and a multi-year water infrastructure replacement programme underway. Among the trades in this entire tranche, this is the strongest set of numbers, and the licence is what protects it.