What Network and Computer Systems Administrators earn in DeKalb County, IL
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $103,170: the median annual pay for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb County, IL. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $49.60 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 $108,870, which is 5.5% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,950 people working in this occupation across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. DeKalb County, IL has roughly 100,703 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $68,990 a year ($33.17 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $162,290 or more ($78.02 an hour). That is a gap of $93,300 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $82,750 at the 25th percentile and $130,120 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.4 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 Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb County, IL is $49.60. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $103,170, and the same salary is $8,598 a month before taxes or about $3,968 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $36.62 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Network and Computer Systems Administrators
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Network and Computer Systems Administrators this way: "Install, configure, and maintain an organization's local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), data communications network, operating systems, and physical and virtual servers. Perform system monitoring and verify the integrity and availability of hardware, network, and server resources and systems. Review system and application logs and verify completion of scheduled jobs, including system backups. Analyze network and server resource consumption and control user access. Install and upgrade software and maintain software licenses. May assist in network modeling, analysis, planning, and coordination between network and data communications hardware and software."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Perform data backups and disaster recovery operations"; "Maintain and administer computer networks and related computing environments, including computer hardware, systems software, applications software, and all configurations"; "Plan, coordinate, and implement network security measures to protect data, software, and hardware"; "Operate master consoles to monitor the performance of computer systems and networks and to coordinate computer network access and use".
Job outlook for Network and Computer Systems Administrators
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 323,600 jobs in 2025 to 310,400 in 2035, a change of -4.1%, 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 4.1% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: bachelor's degree. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $99,130 for this occupation; the DeKalb County, IL median of $103,170 is 4.1% above it.
How pay in DeKalb County, IL compares
Compared with the Illinois average
DeKalb County, IL pays above the state benchmark. The Illinois employment-weighted average for Network and Computer Systems Administrators is $98,020; the local median of $103,170 beats it by $5,150, or 5.3%. Within Illinois, DeKalb County, IL already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Network and Computer Systems Administrators is $99,653 across the contiguous United States. At $103,170, DeKalb County, IL pays $3,517 more, which is 3.5% 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 DeKalb County, IL
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in DeKalb County, IL, Network and Computer Systems Administrators ranks number 107 by median pay, ahead of about 83% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $173,760 a year, which is $70,590 more than the median for Network and Computer Systems Administrators.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $103,170 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 $27,005 a year, which leaves $76,165, or $6,347 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $26 goes to taxes and $74 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 26.2%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $87,420. 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 $14,146, an effective 13.7% 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 $6,397 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,496. FICA totals $7,893, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Illinois
Illinois income tax on this salary is $4,966 a year, or 4.8% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 35% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $414 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 DeKalb County, IL
IRS Statistics of Income data for DeKalb County, IL show an average adjusted gross income of $75,621 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 11.1% across all filers. Filers in the $100,000 to under $200,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 10.8%, compared with the 13.7% 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 DeKalb County, IL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in DeKalb County, IL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $76,165 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in DeKalb County, IL is $1,155 a month, or $13,860 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,481 a month. For Network and Computer Systems Administrators, a one-bedroom absorbs 18.2% of take-home pay and 13.4% 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 3.3% of gross pay for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb 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 $20,877 a year, 27% of take-home pay. That leaves $55,288 a year, or $4,607 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 53.6% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for DeKalb County, IL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in DeKalb 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 DeKalb County, IL, set beside the Illinois and national medians.
Property taxes in DeKalb County, IL
Homeowners in DeKalb County, IL pay a median of $5,974 a year in real estate taxes, 13% above the Illinois median of $5,298 and 92% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $243,600, the median tax bill is 2.45% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Network and Computer Systems Administrators median of $103,170, a tax bill of that size would equal 5.8% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in DeKalb County, IL
Renters in DeKalb County, IL pay a median gross rent of $1,049 a month in the Census survey, 18% below the Illinois median of $1,274. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,155 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 $243,600, 7% below the Illinois median of $263,300. Median household income is $70,724, 15% below the Illinois median of $83,390, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.6% of that income.
Commuting in DeKalb County, IL
Workers in DeKalb County, IL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 26.7 minutes each way, 4% below the Illinois average of 27.8. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.5 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 9.3% of workers in DeKalb County, IL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Network and Computer Systems Administrators afford to live in DeKalb 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 $103,170 that ceiling is $2,579 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,155 is $1,424 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $22.21 an hour; the median for Network and Computer Systems Administrators is $49.60, which is 123% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $36.62 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 7.3 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,481 a month means $741 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $4,974 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $60,262.
How fast you can save
At $4,607 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 3 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 6 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Network and Computer Systems Administrators pay in DeKalb County, IL
What is the hourly wage for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb County, IL?
The median is $49.60 per hour, based on $103,170 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $33.17 at the 10th percentile to $78.02 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb County, IL?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $103,170 becomes $76,165 a year. That is $6,347 a month, $2,929 every two weeks or $1,465 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb County, IL?
Total taxes are $27,005 a year, an effective rate of 26.2%: $14,146 federal income tax, $7,893 FICA and $4,966 Illinois income tax.
Is pay for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb County, IL above the Illinois average?
Yes. The local median of $103,170 is +5.3% versus the Illinois average of $98,020, a difference of $5,150 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Network and Computer Systems Administrators salary in DeKalb County, IL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,155 a month against take-home pay of $6,347, which is 18.2% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $2,579 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Network and Computer Systems Administrators in DeKalb County, IL?
About $4,607 a month ($55,288 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $20,877 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in DeKalb County, IL at the 30% guideline?
$22.21 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $13,860 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Network and Computer Systems Administrators is $49.60.
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.