- The middle half earn between $17.14 and $21.83 an hour.
- Illinois ranks 15th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- Illinois pays more than all 5 neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 93,760 janitors on payrolls in Illinois.
- At the state median wage, a commercial cleaning company needs to bill about $102.52 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Janitor pay in Illinois, bottom to top
BLS counts janitors and cleaners together, outside of maids and housekeeping. Office cleaning crews and school custodians are in this group.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $15.17 | $31,560 | $13.77 |
| 25th percentile | $17.14 | $35,660 | $15.50 |
| Median | $18.18 | $37,810 | $17.71 |
| 75th percentile | $21.83 | $45,410 | $21.18 |
| 90th percentile | $24.04 | $50,000 | $24.17 |
| Average (mean) | $19.59 | $40,750 | $18.64 |
Pay is bunched up in Illinois. The top tenth earn $24.04 an hour or more, about 1.6 times the $15.17 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 1.8 times, so the step from the bottom of the scale to the top is shorter here than in most places.
The floor is higher than nationally ($15.17 against $13.77) but the ceiling is lower ($24.04 against $24.17), which squeezes pay toward the middle.
The average wage, $19.59, sits 8% above the median. A smaller group of higher earners pulls the average up, so the median is the better guide to what a typical janitor makes.
How Illinois compares with other states
Over a full year the gap to the national median is small: $37,810 in Illinois against $36,840 nationally, $970 more.
In the state ranking, Illinois sits 15th, between Connecticut ($18.25) and North Dakota ($18.15). The range runs from $13.64 in Mississippi to $21.91 in Massachusetts.
Illinois pays janitors more than any of its neighboring states, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. Someone working near the border can earn more by taking work on this side of it.
How many janitors work in Illinois
BLS estimates 93,760 janitors on payrolls in Illinois, 4.2% of the 2,209,760 nationwide. Only 4 states have more.
That is 15.4 of every 1,000 jobs in Illinois, close to the trade's share of jobs nationally.
What a commercial cleaning company in Illinois should charge
Say you run a commercial cleaning company in Illinois and pay the state median of $18.18 an hour. Here is the labor rate calculator's math on its starting numbers: 40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $18.18 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $40,707 |
| Break-even rate | ($40,707 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $87.14 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $87.14 ÷ 0.85 | $102.52 |
That is $102.52 per billable hour, 5.6 times the wage, and almost the same as the $101.69 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $21.83 in Illinois, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $108.93.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $17.14, the rate only drops to $100.69.
At this wage, overhead is most of the price: $60 of every billed hour goes to it before anyone is paid. Spreading the same overhead over more billable hours, with a second person or less drive time, brings the rate down fastest.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Working as a janitor in Illinois
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how cleaning companies run on Koira.
- Getting found. The free Koira report checks how your business shows up in search and on maps against shops near you.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 37-2011, janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: janitor salary by state.