How much do plumbers make in Illinois in 2026?

The median plumber salary in Illinois is $99,950 per year, which works out to roughly $48.05 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That puts Illinois plumbers well above the national median and makes plumbing one of the higher-paying skilled trades in the state. All figures on this page come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.

The spread across the pay scale is wide. At the 25th percentile, plumbers in Illinois earn $72,070 per year, or about $34.65 an hour. Workers at this level are typically newer to the trade, working in lower-cost regional markets, or employed by smaller residential contractors where volume and margins are thinner. At the 75th percentile, pay jumps to $120,050 per year — roughly $57.72 an hour. That kind of wage usually reflects a combination of years on the job, specialty skills such as medical gas, fire suppression, or large-diameter commercial piping, and working in high-demand metro areas like Chicago or the surrounding collar counties.

Union pay sits between the median and the top quartile. A journeyman plumber on a union contract in Illinois averages $108,160 per year, or about $52.00 an hour in base wages. That figure does not include the full value of a union package. Defined-benefit pension contributions, health insurance, and annuity fund payments are negotiated separately and can add a substantial amount on top of the hourly wage rate. The United Association locals covering the Chicago area — particularly UA Local 130 — are among the strongest-funded plumbing locals in the country, so the total compensation picture for union members in the city is considerably richer than the wage number alone suggests.

Geography matters a lot within Illinois. The Chicago metro drives the upper end of the state's wage data. Plumbers working in the city and its suburbs face higher costs of living but also benefit from a dense concentration of commercial construction, industrial work, and large-scale infrastructure projects that simply don't exist in downstate markets. Outside the metro, plumbers in mid-sized cities like Rockford, Peoria, or Springfield tend to land closer to the median. Rural areas typically track toward the lower quartile, though shortage conditions in some smaller markets can push wages up for experienced hands who are willing to stay local.

Experience is the single biggest lever on individual pay. An apprentice in the first or second year of a five-year program will earn a percentage of the journeyman wage — typically starting around 45–50% and stepping up annually. By the time a plumber reaches journeyman status and has a few more years of field experience, wages above $50 an hour in the Chicago market are realistic. Foremen, general foremen, and plumbing supervisors routinely exceed the 75th percentile figures, particularly on large commercial or industrial job sites.

Specialty work commands a premium at every level. Plumbers who hold medical gas certifications, cross-connection control backflow tester licenses, or who work in industrial or process piping environments typically out-earn residential service-and-repair plumbers with similar years of experience. High-rise work in Chicago also carries additional pay considerations tied to union jurisdiction and project agreements.

For anyone comparing job offers or negotiating a raise, the numbers here give you a solid benchmark. A journeyman with several years of experience in the Chicago metro should expect to be near or above the $108,160 union rate. If an offer is sitting at the 25th percentile without a clear path upward, that's worth pushing back on — the market in Illinois supports better.