The median advertised pay for a travel ER (emergency room) contract in Illinois is $2,298 per week, with the middle half between $2,207 and $2,412. Measured across 25 active travel ER contracts in Illinois at 13 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home.
That is 2 percent over the $2,264 national median for travel ER contracts.
Illinois is not a Nurse Licensure Compact state, so you need a Illinois license to work here even if you hold a multistate license. The compact state list explains which states issue one.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,100 | 3 |
| $2,100 to $2,250 | 6 |
| $2,250 to $2,400 | 9 |
| $2,400 to $2,550 | 3 |
| $2,550 to $2,700 | 0 |
| $2,700 to $2,850 | 0 |
| $2,850 to $3,000 | 0 |
| $3,000 and up | 4 |
All 25 open contracts, banded by advertised weekly rate. The outer bands are open-ended so nothing falls outside the chart.
Illinois has the 19th highest price level of the 51 states and territories the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures: 0 percent under the national average overall. The premium is concentrated in housing, at 6 percent under, while goods sit 4 percent over and services 0 percent over. That matters more than the headline number, because housing is the part a tax-free stipend is meant to cover and the rest comes out of taxed wages.
| Metro | Open contracts | Median weekly | Rent, 1 bed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urbana | 8 | $2,327 | $870/mo |
| Peoria | 5 | $3,035 | $790/mo |
| Rockford | 2 | $2,152 | $890/mo |
| Belleville | 1 | $2,228 | $885/mo |
| Chicago | 1 | $1,983 | $1,590/mo |
| Decatur | 1 | $3,002 | $800/mo |
| Harvey | 1 | $2,151 | $1,210/mo |
| Kankakee | 1 | $1,809 | $970/mo |
| Maryville | 1 | $2,287 | — |
| Normal | 1 | $2,298 | $790/mo |
| Quincy | 1 | $2,329 | $730/mo |
| Rock Island | 1 | $2,164 | $800/mo |
Rent is the one-bedroom Fair Market Rent HUD publishes for that metro, which is what a housing stipend is trying to cover. The open-contract count beside each metro is the sample its median rests on, and outside the largest markets that sample is small: a median over one or two contracts is a single posting's rate rather than a market rate, so read the count first.
Browse the board for current ER assignments in Illinois.
Drawn from the postings that state a requirement, which is not all of them, so each figure carries the number it was measured from. Your recruiter confirms the specifics for a given contract before submission.
All 46 states with ER openings