How much do millwrights make in Illinois in 2026?

The median millwright in Illinois earns $66,640 a year, which works out to roughly $32.04 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That number sits in the middle of a wide range — workers at the 25th percentile earn $49,620 (~$23.86/hr), while those at the 75th percentile bring in $85,150 (~$40.94/hr). All figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.

That $35,530 spread between the bottom quarter and the top quarter is not random. It reflects real differences in specialization, employer type, and years of experience. A millwright who has spent a decade aligning precision turbines or installing conveyor systems in heavy manufacturing commands a different rate than someone just past their apprenticeship installing basic conveyor components. Illinois has a dense industrial base — food processing, steel, chemical, and auto-parts manufacturing are all major employers of millwrights — and the specific sector matters. Petrochemical and power-generation plants tend to pay at or above the 75th percentile. Smaller fabrication shops often land closer to the median or below.

Geography inside Illinois also moves the needle. The Chicago metro area and the industrial corridor running south through Joliet and Rockford tend to offer higher wages than rural downstate counties, simply because there are more large industrial employers competing for qualified millwrights. A millwright based out of the Chicago area can also pick up work in neighboring northwest Indiana, where refineries and steel mills run steady overtime. That cross-border work can push effective annual earnings well above the figures listed here.

Overtime is a consistent factor in this trade. Millwrights are often called in for planned shutdowns, turnarounds, and emergency breakdowns — all of which generate time-and-a-half or double-time pay. A millwright earning the median straight-time rate of $32.04/hr who works 200 hours of overtime in a year adds roughly $9,612 in gross pay at time-and-a-half, pushing their total well past $76,000 for that year. Workers at the 75th percentile doing the same would exceed $97,000 gross.

Apprenticeship completion is the clearest documented step toward the upper end of this pay range. A completed millwright apprenticeship — typically four to five years combining on-the-job hours with classroom instruction — gives workers the documented skill set that large industrial employers require before putting someone on precision alignment or critical-path installation work. Certifications in hydraulics, pneumatics, or laser alignment are additional credentials that employers at the top of the pay scale typically look for.

No union scale data was available for millwrights in Illinois at the time of this publication. Union contracts in neighboring states and in related trades suggest that organized millwrights in heavy industrial settings frequently bargain wages at or above the 75th percentile, plus defined benefits and pension contributions that are not captured in the wage figures above. Workers considering union membership should contact the relevant local directly for current scale information.

The bottom line: Illinois millwrights at the median take home around $32.04 an hour. Get into a top-quarter role in the right industrial sector and that number climbs to $40.94/hr or better on base pay alone — before overtime, shift differentials, or benefits are counted.