Public Health Nurse I

Across all employers in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN area, the median wage for Registered Nurses — about 100,240 people — is $100,490. Chicago Department of Public Health pays a median base salary of $101,448 for this role, in line with that figure — about the 53rd percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Median total compensation for this role at Chicago Department of Public Health is $101,448, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.

Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.

This role is reported in 15 jurisdictions. In City of Chicago, the median of $101,448 ranks #4 of 15. See Public Health Nurse across all of City of Chicago →