What School Bus Monitors earn in Lake County, IL
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $33,890: the median annual pay for School Bus Monitors in Lake County, IL. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $16.29 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 $34,350, which is 1.4% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 5,210 people working in this occupation across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Lake County, IL has roughly 714,223 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for School Bus Monitors in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $31,200 a year ($15.00 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $38,210 or more ($18.37 an hour). That is a gap of $7,010 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $31,640 at the 25th percentile and $35,090 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.2 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $16.29 an hour or $33,890 a year at the median for Lake County, IL. Before any deductions, that is $2,824 a month, $1,303 every two weeks and $652 each week. After taxes the same job pays $13.38 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: School Bus Monitors
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of School Bus Monitors this way: "Maintain order among students on a school bus. Duties include helping students safely board and exit and communicating behavioral problems. May perform pretrip and posttrip inspections and prepare for and assist in emergency evacuations."
Job outlook for School Bus Monitors
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 76,700 jobs in 2025 to 75,300 in 2035, a change of -1.9%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 13,400 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 17.5% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $35,100 for this occupation; the Lake County, IL median of $33,890 is 3.4% below it.
How pay in Lake County, IL compares
Compared with the Illinois average
Pay for School Bus Monitors in Lake County, IL is in line with the statewide figure: $33,890 locally against an employment-weighted Illinois average of $33,908, a difference of only $18 (0.1%). Within Illinois, Lake County, IL already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for School Bus Monitors is $34,651 across the contiguous United States. At $33,890, Lake County, IL pays $761 less, which is 2.2% below 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 Lake County, IL
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Lake County, IL, School Bus Monitors ranks number 610 by median pay, ahead of about 1% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers at $293,490 a year, which is $259,600 more than the median for School Bus Monitors.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For School Bus Monitors earning the Lake County, IL median of $33,890, they add up to $6,067. The result is $27,823 of take-home pay a year ($2,319 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $18 goes to taxes and $82 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 17.9%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $18,140. 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 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $1,938, an effective 5.7% of gross pay, well below the 12% 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 $2,101 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $491. FICA totals $2,593, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Illinois
Illinois income tax on this salary is $1,536 a year, or 4.5% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 79% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $128 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 Lake County, IL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Lake County, IL show an average adjusted gross income of $147,648 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 18.4% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.0%, compared with the 5.7% 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 Lake County, IL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Lake County, IL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $27,823 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Lake County, IL, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,780 a month ($21,360 a year), and at $2,011 for two bedrooms. For School Bus Monitors, a one-bedroom absorbs 76.8% of take-home pay and 63.0% 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 10.1% of gross pay for School Bus Monitors in Lake 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
The basics cost $28,377 a year in Lake County, IL, but take-home pay for School Bus Monitors is $27,823. That is a shortfall of $554 a year, or $46 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 41 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $13.38, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Local housing and commute data for Lake County, IL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Lake 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 Lake County, IL, set beside the Illinois and national medians.
Property taxes in Lake County, IL
Homeowners in Lake County, IL pay a median of $8,923 a year in real estate taxes, 68% above the Illinois median of $5,298 and 186% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $345,700, the median tax bill is 2.58% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local School Bus Monitors median of $33,890, a tax bill of that size would equal 26.3% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Lake County, IL
Renters in Lake County, IL pay a median gross rent of $1,477 a month in the Census survey, 16% 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 $345,700, 31% above the Illinois median of $263,300. Median household income is $110,416, 32% above the Illinois median of $83,390, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.3% of that income.
Commuting in Lake County, IL
Workers in Lake County, IL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 28.5 minutes each way, 3% above the Illinois average of 27.8. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 19.5% of workers in Lake County, IL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can School Bus Monitors afford to live in Lake 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 $33,890 that ceiling is $847 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,780 is $933 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 School Bus Monitors is $16.29, which is 52% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $13.38 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 30.7 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 $8,740, which turns the shortfall into a surplus.
How fast you can save
With no monthly margin after the four basics, saving requires a change on one side of the ledger: higher pay than the $33,890 median, lower housing costs than the $1,780 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about School Bus Monitors pay in Lake County, IL
How much do School Bus Monitors make per hour in Lake County, IL?
The median is $16.29 per hour, based on $33,890 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $15.00 at the 10th percentile to $18.37 at the 90th percentile.
How much do School Bus Monitors take home after taxes in Lake County, IL?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $33,890 becomes $27,823 a year. That is $2,319 a month, $1,070 every two weeks or $535 a week.
How much tax do School Bus Monitors pay in Lake County, IL?
Total taxes are $6,067 a year, an effective rate of 17.9%: $1,938 federal income tax, $2,593 FICA and $1,536 Illinois income tax.
Do School Bus Monitors earn more in Lake County, IL than elsewhere in Illinois?
It is about the same. The local median of $33,890 is within 0.1% of the Illinois average of $33,908.
Can School Bus Monitors afford a one-bedroom apartment in Lake County, IL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,780 a month against take-home pay of $2,319, which is 76.8% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $847 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for School Bus Monitors in Lake County, IL?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $28,377 a year, which is $554 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $46.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Lake 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 School Bus Monitors is $16.29.
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.