H-1B salaries in Chicago, IL

Based on 32,938 certified H-1B filings in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area, FY2025–FY2026. Base salary only.

Median salary$108,780
Middle 50%$87.6k–$142.2k
vs. national median−11%comparison median $122,699
Filings32,938FY2025–FY2026 · latest two fiscal years

Salary range

Box: middle 50% of filings. Whiskers: 10th–90th percentile. 99% of filings are between $51,560 and $276,162.
PercentileSalary
10th$73,064
25th$87,600
50th (median)$108,780
75th$142,210
90th$175,000

Salary by year

Median salary

$70k $95k $120k FY2020: median $88,000 (22,193 filings) FY2021: median $90,397 (20,409 filings) FY2022: median $95,000 (22,471 filings) FY2023: median $100,000 (18,223 filings) FY2024: median $103,000 (18,298 filings) FY2025: median $108,100 (19,496 filings) FY2026: median $110,000 (13,442 filings) FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25 FY26

Filings per year

FY2020: 22,193 filings FY20 FY2021: 20,409 filings FY21 FY2022: 22,471 filings FY22 FY2023: 18,223 filings FY23 FY2024: 18,298 filings FY24 FY2025: 19,496 filings FY25 FY2026: 13,442 filings FY26 22,471
Shaded: FY2025–FY2026, the years behind the figures above. Median shown for years with at least 10 filings. FY2026 covers Q1–Q3 only.
Show as table
Fiscal yearMedianP25P75Filings
FY2020$88,000$76,000$108,00022,193
FY2021$90,397$79,768$115,37820,409
FY2022$95,000$80,000$124,68622,471
FY2023$100,000$84,200$130,00018,223
FY2024$103,000$83,970$135,00018,298
FY2025$108,100$87,547$140,04519,496
FY2026$110,000$88,000$144,00013,442

Cost of living

Chicago's median H-1B salary of $108,780 is worth about $105,000 at national average prices.

Fair market rent, 1-bedroom$1,780Per month. Source: HUD Fair Market Rents, FY2027 (Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL HUD Metro FMR Area).
Fair market rent, 2-bedroom$2,011Per month. Source: HUD Fair Market Rents, FY2027 (Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL HUD Metro FMR Area).
Price level (U.S. = 100)103.6Source: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024.
Price-adjusted median$105,000Median salary ÷ (price level ÷ 100).
State income tax on wagesIL: yes · IN: yesSource: Tax Foundation, State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2025.

Most filed jobs

JobMedianFilings
Software Engineer$127,7548,846
Systems Engineer / Architect$107,6402,993
Data Scientist$116,3342,556
QA Engineer$99,2371,203
Systems Analyst$99,840960
Accountant$92,000889
Programmer Analyst$82,534880
IT Manager$185,000829
Management Consultant$150,000695
Operations Research Analyst$115,000643
Financial Analyst$125,000621
Industrial Engineer$98,000461
Quantitative Analyst$140,000457
Mechanical Engineer$96,172444
Database Administrator$118,000425

By job title

Solutions Architect$140.8k · 267 Product Manager$135k · 212 DevOps Engineer$108.1k · 207 Java Developer$106.8k · 182 Full Stack Developer$107k · 178 SAP Consultant$107k · 171 Cloud Engineer$128.1k · 100 Systems Engineer$100k · 95 .NET Developer$108.1k · 82 Site Reliability Engineer$121k · 63 Salesforce Developer$108.1k · 56 Scrum Master$106.6k · 43 Frontend Developer$108.1k · 34 Backend Developer$116.5k · 24 Python Developer$106.8k · 16

Job titles with at least 10 filings in Chicago, IL. Figure: median salary · filings.