What Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists earn in Cook County, IL
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $65,680: the median annual pay for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $31.58 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $71,390, which is 8.7% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 8,660 people working in this occupation across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Cook County, IL has roughly 5,182,090 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $45,830 a year ($22.03 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $98,660 or more ($47.43 an hour). That is a gap of $52,830 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $58,080 at the 25th percentile and $83,900 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.2 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL is $31.58. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $65,680, and the same salary is $5,473 a month before taxes or about $2,526 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $24.83 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists this way: "Diagnose, adjust, repair, or overhaul buses and trucks, or maintain and repair any type of diesel engines. Includes mechanics working primarily with automobile or marine diesel engines."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Use handtools, such as screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, pressure gauges, or precision instruments, as well as power tools, such as pneumatic wrenches, lathes, welding equipment, or jacks and hoists"; "Inspect brake systems, steering mechanisms, wheel bearings, and other important parts to ensure that they are in proper operating condition"; "Perform routine maintenance such as changing oil, checking batteries, and lubricating equipment and machinery"; "Adjust and reline brakes, align wheels, tighten bolts and screws, and reassemble equipment".
Job outlook for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 316,000 jobs in 2025 to 327,400 in 2035, a change of +3.6%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 24,400 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 7.7% of current employment each year. About 5.9% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: long-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $61,770 for this occupation; the Cook County, IL median of $65,680 is 6.3% above it.
How pay in Cook County, IL compares
Compared with the Illinois average
Cook County, IL pays above the state benchmark. The Illinois employment-weighted average for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists is $64,199; the local median of $65,680 beats it by $1,481, or 2.3%. Within Illinois, Cook County, IL already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists is $63,097 across the contiguous United States. At $65,680, Cook County, IL pays $2,583 more, which is 4.1% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Cook County, IL
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Cook County, IL, Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists ranks number 304 by median pay, ahead of about 51% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $173,760 a year, which is $108,080 more than the median for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $65,680 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $14,033 a year, which leaves $51,647, or $4,304 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $21 goes to taxes and $79 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 21.4%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $49,930. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 22% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $5,899, an effective 9.0% of gross pay, well below the 22% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $4,072 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $952. FICA totals $5,025, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Illinois
Illinois income tax on this salary is $3,110 a year, or 4.7% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 53% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $259 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Cook County, IL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Cook County, IL show an average adjusted gross income of $105,065 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 16.4% across all filers. Filers in the $50,000 to under $75,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 7.6%, compared with the 9.0% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Cook County, IL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Cook County, IL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $51,647 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Cook County, IL is $1,780 a month, or $21,360 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,011 a month. For Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists, a one-bedroom absorbs 41.4% of take-home pay and 32.5% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 5.2% of gross pay for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Illinois residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,677 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $434, for $2,110 in total. Gasoline in Illinois averages $3.18 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,471.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $28,377 a year, 55% of take-home pay. That leaves $23,270 a year, or $1,939 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 35.4% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Cook County, IL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Cook County, IL: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Cook County, IL, set beside the Illinois and national medians.
Property taxes in Cook County, IL
Homeowners in Cook County, IL pay a median of $6,191 a year in real estate taxes, 17% above the Illinois median of $5,298 and 98% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $324,500, the median tax bill is 1.91% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists median of $65,680, a tax bill of that size would equal 9.4% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Cook County, IL
Renters in Cook County, IL pay a median gross rent of $1,435 a month in the Census survey, 13% above the Illinois median of $1,274. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,780 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $324,500, 23% above the Illinois median of $263,300. Median household income is $83,498, in line with the Illinois median of $83,390, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 25.6% of that income.
Commuting in Cook County, IL
Workers in Cook County, IL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 31.5 minutes each way, 13% above the Illinois average of 27.8. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.3 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 18.9% of workers in Cook County, IL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists afford to live in Cook County, IL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $65,680 that ceiling is $1,642 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,780 is $138 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $34.23 an hour; the median for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists is $31.58, which is 8% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $24.83 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 16.5 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,011 a month means $1,006 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $9,294 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $32,564.
How fast you can save
At $1,939 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 6 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 12 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists pay in Cook County, IL
What is the hourly wage for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL?
The median is $31.58 per hour, based on $65,680 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $22.03 at the 10th percentile to $47.43 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $65,680 becomes $51,647 a year. That is $4,304 a month, $1,986 every two weeks or $993 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL?
Total taxes are $14,033 a year, an effective rate of 21.4%: $5,899 federal income tax, $5,025 FICA and $3,110 Illinois income tax.
Is pay for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL above the Illinois average?
Yes. The local median of $65,680 is +2.3% versus the Illinois average of $64,199, a difference of $1,481 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists salary in Cook County, IL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,780 a month against take-home pay of $4,304, which is 41.4% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,642 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Cook County, IL?
About $1,939 a month ($23,270 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $28,377 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Cook County, IL at the 30% guideline?
$34.23 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $21,360 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists is $31.58.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Illinois rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.