Respiratory Therapist Salary in Illinois 2026,
$84,090 Median | BLS Data by City

Illinois respiratory therapists earn a median $84,090 a year, $40.43 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $77,440 and $96,260 and a full range of $64,480 to $100,100. That is 2.2% above the $82,280 national median, taxed at Illinois's flat 4.95%.

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $87,060, then Kankakee at $84,490, Springfield at $78,340, Peoria at $77,660 and Rockford at $77,640. The Chicago metro's lead over downstate is around nine thousand dollars, driven by the concentration of academic medical centres and high-acuity units in the metropolitan area.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, under the Respiratory Care Practice Act. Licensure requires graduation from an accredited respiratory care programme and National Board for Respiratory Care credentialing, and IDFPR administers renewal and continuing education. Above the licence, the Registered Respiratory Therapist designation is what Illinois hospitals require for ICU, neonatal and critical-care assignments.

A flat 4.95% on all income including differentials and overtime, with a $2,925 personal exemption allowance in 2026 and no local income tax anywhere in Illinois. In a profession where night and weekend premiums are a substantial part of annual earnings, that flat treatment is a genuine advantage over graduated schedules where extra shifts can be taxed at a higher marginal rate.

They are the main pay mechanic in the profession. Illinois hospitals pay night, weekend and on-call differentials on top of base hourly rates, and critical-care, neonatal and transport assignments carry their own premiums. A therapist on permanent nights in a Chicago system can sit near the $96,260 seventy-fifth percentile on the same base rate as a day-shift colleague near the $84,090 median.

High-acuity work and the credentials to go with it. The Chicago metro concentrates academic medical centres, level one trauma capacity, transplant programmes and large neonatal intensive care units, all of which employ respiratory therapists at higher acuity than community hospitals do — and pay for NBRC specialty credentials, ECMO qualification and transport team membership accordingly. That is why Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $87,060 sits nine thousand dollars above the downstate metros, and why the state's $100,100 ninetieth percentile is a Chicago figure.

The published figure is an annualised salaried-equivalent number, and in a profession where much of the real variation comes from differentials and overtime it understates what many Illinois RTs actually earn. A therapist working consistent nights with weekend rotation banks meaningfully more than $84,090 implies. Conversely, part-time and PRN therapists — a significant group in Illinois's long-term care and community hospital sector — will not see the annualised figure at all.

Critical care plus a specialty credential. Moving from general floor coverage to ICU, neonatal or emergency assignment brings differentials immediately, and NBRC specialty credentials in neonatal-paediatric or adult critical care attach to defined pay steps in most Illinois hospital systems. Transport and ECMO team membership in the Chicago academic centres is the highest-paid bedside work in the state and is what reaches the $96,260 seventy-fifth percentile and the $100,100 ninetieth.