The median advertised pay for a travel ICU (intensive care unit) contract in Illinois is $2,390 per week, with the middle half between $2,332 and $2,493. Measured across 24 active travel ICU contracts in Illinois at 13 facilities, as of 2026-10-30.
Advertised weekly totals before tax, usually including tax-free stipends; for almost all postings the top of an advertised range. Not take-home.
That is 2 percent under the $2,431 national median for travel ICU 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, and the compact checker tells you whether yours covers you here.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,200 | 2 |
| $2,200 to $2,300 | 3 |
| $2,300 to $2,400 | 7 |
| $2,400 to $2,500 | 6 |
| $2,500 to $2,600 | 2 |
| $2,600 to $2,700 | 2 |
| $2,700 to $2,800 | 2 |
All 24 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peoria | 5 | $2,219 | $790/mo |
| Urbana | 5 | $2,481 | $870/mo |
| Rockford | 4 | $2,364 | $890/mo |
| Springfield | 3 | $2,768 | $930/mo |
| Chicago | 1 | $2,017 | $1,590/mo |
| Decatur | 1 | $2,463 | $800/mo |
| Dixon | 1 | $2,219 | — |
| Jacksonville | 1 | $2,463 | — |
| Macomb | 1 | $2,361 | $740/mo |
| Olney | 1 | $2,337 | — |
| Quincy | 1 | $2,359 | $730/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 ICU assignments in Illinois.
Over the last seven days the median advertised rate rose 1.4 percent, from $2,403 to $2,436 a week. Measured against the seven days before it, across 26 open postings, 2026-10-17 to 2026-10-30.
This compares advertised rates within one specialty in one state, which is the only cut where a change in the median is likely to mean a change in price rather than a change in which contracts are posted. Where the number of open postings moves sharply, no figure is shown.
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 ICU openings