2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Light Truck Drivers

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area. Estimated employment 34,680.

Data released May 2025 BLS OEWS · SOC 53-3033
Fig. 1 — The wage rule

Where you sit in the distribution

Drag the marker, or type a figure
$47,950 · 50th
$34,78010th
$42,46025th
$47,95050th
$61,60075th
$91,90090th

That is the medianhalf of light truck drivers in Chicago earn more.

Table 1 — Adjusted

$47,950 in Chicago buys what $46,300 buys across the country as a whole.

Chicago's regional price parity is 103.6 — above the national average, so the nominal figure overstates what it buys. Adjusted figures for other metros are in the nearby-metros table below.

Table 2 — Nearby metros

The same job, elsewhere in Illinois

Adjusted figures apply each metro's regional price parity, so the columns are directly comparable.

Metro areaMedianAdjustedRPPvs. Chicago
Rockford$48,240$52,30092.2+13.1%
Chicago This page$47,950$46,300103.6
Champaign$47,910$51,70092.7+11.7%
Decatur$47,660$53,90088.4+16.5%
Springfield$43,830$47,30092.7+2.1%
Peoria$43,440$47,60091.2+2.9%
Kankakee$42,030$43,60096.4−5.8%
Bloomington$41,410$44,30093.5−4.4%

Price parity and difference against Chicago are in the full table on wider screens.

Fig. 2 — Five-year trend

Nominal against real

The same median, once as published and once restated in 2025 dollars.

45k50k55k60k 20212022202320242025
Nominal, as published Real, in 2025 dollars US$ thousands

Published pay rose 3.3% over the five years to 2025. Adjusted for inflation it fell 13.0% — prices rose faster than pay since 2021. The two lines meet at the right edge by construction, since 2025 is the base year.

Sources

How this page was made

Wage data
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
Price parity
Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
Inflation
Real figures deflate by CPI-U annual averages (BLS, all items, US city average).
Employment
34,680 employed in this occupation in the metro (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
Occupation
SOC 53-3033, Light Truck Drivers. Mapped to our taxonomy as light-truck-drivers.

Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.