Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists Average Salary in Illinois
$87,940 average · $87,940 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 13-1161What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists in Illinois, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
How much do Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists make in Illinois?
The average market research analysts and marketing specialists salary in Illinois is $87,940 per year. That works out to about $42.28 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 40,560 market research analysts and marketing specialists jobs in Illinois.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $87,940. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $87,940; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $87,940 — a 0% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Business and Financial Operations Careers Are Structured
Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how market research analysts and marketing specialists pay is distributed in Illinois specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
Entry typically requires a bachelor's degree, but the field is unusually open to career-changers because the core skills — analysis, communication, process discipline — transfer across industries. Early-career workers should weight employers by what they teach: two years in a rigorous environment moves you up this distribution faster than five in a lax one.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists Do?
Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists positions belong to the business and financial operations field. Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 13-1161
Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists pay in Illinois
In Illinois, market research analysts and marketing specialists report a median of $87,940 (about $42.28/hour) across roughly 40,560 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $87,940 at the 10th percentile to $87,940 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons Illinois wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
What your paycheck is really worth in Illinois
Prices in Illinois run 0% below the national average (RPP 100.0). So a nominal salary of $87,940 has the buying power of about $87,977 in national terms.
Illinois vs. United States for Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists
The median market research analysts and marketing specialists salary in Illinois is $87,940, which is -2.1% below the national median of $89,790 (mean pay is -1.4% below the U.S. mean of $89,203). Among 51 states and D.C. with OEWS data, Illinois ranks #13 by median wage for this occupation. Illinois accounts for about 0.9% of U.S. market research analysts and marketing specialists employment in the latest OEWS release.
See every state ranked for this occupation on the best-paying states page, or compare purchasing power on real wages.
Income reality check
The median salary for Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists in Illinois of $87,940 falls in the Comfortable band of this framework - roughly ~12% of the U.S. population and ~7% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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