Financial Analyst Salary in Chicago — 2026 BLS Data
Salary distribution
Percentile breakdown of Financial Analyst base salaries in Chicago.
Chicago’s financial analyst market is more stratified than a single headline number suggests. BLS OEWS May 2024 data (SOC code 13-2051, Financial and Investment Analysts) puts the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro median at roughly $102,000 — nearly in line with the national figure of $101,350 — but the spread from the 25th to the 90th percentile is a factor of two. That gap exists because “financial analyst” in Chicago spans an entry-level FP&A associate at a mid-size manufacturer in the suburbs, a second-year sell-side equity analyst at a Loop investment bank, and a senior credit risk analyst at a major insurer. They share a job title and almost nothing else when it comes to pay.
What the median hides
The $102,000 median is a clean BLS-measured base wage covering all financial analyst employment in the metro area — approximately 17,000 positions according to OEWS estimates. It excludes bonuses, commissions, and equity, which is significant because Chicago has deep concentrations of banking, trading, and asset management where variable pay routinely adds 20–100% of base.
The percentile distribution tells a more useful story:
| Percentile | Annual Base Salary |
|---|---|
| 25th (P25) | $81,000 |
| 50th — Median (P50) | $102,000 |
| 75th (P75) | $135,000 |
| 90th (P90) | $167,000 |
The P25 represents a real position: an analyst roughly one to two years into a corporate finance or FP&A role at a non-finance-industry employer, or a recent graduate at a regional firm. The P90 typically corresponds to a senior or lead analyst in financial services, credit, or specialized buy-side research — or someone six or more years into a corporate finance career with a CFA designation.
The roughly $21,000 gap between P75 and P90 is smaller than in purely tech-driven markets like San Francisco, but the gap widens substantially once you add variable compensation into the picture, which BLS does not track.
How Chicago compares to other major financial hubs
Chicago is a tier-1 financial center — home to the CME Group, the CBOE, Northern Trust, Morningstar, and regional offices of every major investment bank — but it does not command San Francisco or New York City compensation levels for financial analyst roles.
New York City’s financial analyst median runs around $120,000–$130,000 base, roughly 20–25% above Chicago. That premium reflects the concentration of front-office investment banking, private equity, and hedge fund roles. San Francisco, where technology-adjacent finance roles (corporate finance at Apple, Google, Salesforce) and fintech concentrate, tracks similarly to New York.
Boston is a close peer to Chicago on base salary — $105,000–$115,000 median — anchored by asset management (Fidelity, State Street, Wellington) and institutional research. Washington, D.C. sits slightly below Chicago at roughly $95,000–$100,000 median, shaped by government-adjacent finance and consulting roles at the analyst level.
Dallas and Houston trail Chicago by 10–15% on base for financial analysts, though rapid corporate relocations to Texas have compressed that gap in recent years as companies like Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, and Caterpillar (which relocated its HQ to Irving, TX) have added significant finance headcount there.
The practical implication: if you’re choosing between a Chicago offer and a New York offer, the base gap is real but not as large as the prestige narrative implies, and Chicago’s lower cost of living partially closes it — more on that below.
What drives the spread: company tier, level, and specialty
Three variables explain nearly all of the P25-to-P90 range within Chicago’s financial analyst market.
Company tier and industry
Financial services firms pay structurally more than industrial or consumer companies for the same analyst title. An FP&A analyst at a Fortune 500 manufacturer in the Chicago suburbs earns $75,000–$90,000 base. An analyst in equity research coverage at a regional broker-dealer on LaSalle Street earns $85,000–$110,000 base. An analyst in investment banking (capital markets, M&A advisory) at a bulge-bracket firm downtown earns $110,000–$135,000 base — with a bonus that frequently exceeds that figure.
The exchange-driven ecosystem around the CME and CBOE produces a distinct compensation band: quantitative analysts and risk analysts at trading firms like Citadel, Jump Trading, DRW, and IMC often fall under different SOC codes (13-2099, Mathematical Science Occupations, or similar) but analyst-track roles adjacent to trading operations regularly command $120,000–$150,000 base even at junior levels.
Insurance carriers — a large Chicago employer through companies like Allstate, Zurich North America, and CNA Financial — pay actuarial-adjacent financial analysts more than typical corporate finance roles, typically $90,000–$120,000 base with strong benefits packages but modest bonus structures.
Level and years of experience
At most Chicago employers, the analyst title spans three distinct experience bands:
Analyst I / Junior Analyst (0–2 years): $65,000–$82,000 base. Heavy on financial modeling, reporting, and support work. A bachelor’s in finance, accounting, or economics is the standard entry requirement.
Analyst II / Financial Analyst (2–5 years): $85,000–$110,000 base. Takes ownership of models, leads monthly close reporting, contributes to strategic planning cycles. A CFA Level I or II exam pass, or progress toward a CPA or MBA, noticeably accelerates the transition from this band to the next.
Senior Financial Analyst (5–8 years): $115,000–$145,000 base. Manages analysts, owns a functional area (capital allocation, pricing analytics, treasury), interfaces directly with business unit leadership.
The jump from Analyst II to Senior Analyst — roughly $25,000–$35,000 in base — is the most leveraged career move in the trajectory, and it’s where credentials, track record of impact, and internal advocacy from a manager matter most.
Specialty and certification premium
Certain sub-specialties command persistent premiums:
- CFA charterholder: Adds $8,000–$20,000 in annual base across most financial analyst roles in Chicago. The premium is largest in asset management, research, and commercial banking — smaller in corporate FP&A where the charter is less relevant to daily work.
- FP&A with advanced modeling (VBA, Python, Power BI): Adds 5–10% above peers at the same level. Chicago’s large corporate employer base — Caterpillar, McDonald’s, United Airlines, Kraft Heinz, Abbott — actively pays for analysts who can reduce manual reporting and build scalable dashboards.
- Credit analysis and risk (commercial banking, insurance): Pays roughly in line with corporate finance on base but has lower bonus ceilings. Stability tends to be higher — JP Morgan Chase, BMO, and PNC have large Chicago credit analyst populations.
- Real estate finance and capital markets: A niche but well-paying specialty in Chicago, where real estate private equity firms like Inland, Heitman, and LaSalle Investment Management maintain significant analyst headcount. REIT modeling, debt underwriting, and acquisitions analysis typically commands $95,000–$130,000 base at the mid-senior level.
Total compensation breakdown
BLS wage data measures base salary only. For financial analysts in Chicago, total compensation typically includes three components:
Base salary ($102,000 at median). This is the stable, predictable component. In corporate finance and FP&A roles, base is roughly 70–80% of total cash compensation. In banking and investment roles, it can drop to 40–60% of total cash once bonus season arrives.
Annual cash bonus ($15,000 at median; wider range in practice). Corporate finance analysts at industrial and consumer companies typically receive 8–15% of base as an annual performance bonus — around $8,000–$15,000 at median. Financial services analysts in client-facing or revenue-generating roles see far wider variation: junior analysts in investment banking or asset management may see bonuses of 30–60% of base ($30,000–$65,000 on a $110,000 base) in strong market years, and materially less in weak ones. The 2024 deal-making recovery boosted analyst bonuses across Chicago’s banking community compared to 2022–2023.
Equity ($5,000 at median; concentrated at tech-adjacent or large-cap employers). Most traditional financial analyst roles in Chicago do not include meaningful equity. Where RSUs appear — at technology companies with Chicago finance teams (CME Group, Morningstar, Enova Financial) or at large public corporations as part of broad-based equity programs — the grant is typically $10,000–$30,000 annualized for analysts, representing a modest percentage of total comp. Equity becomes a larger factor at senior analyst and manager levels.
A realistic total compensation picture by role type at the mid-career level:
| Role Type | Base | Bonus | Equity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate FP&A (Fortune 500) | $100,000 | $12,000 | $8,000 | $120,000 |
| Commercial banking / credit | $97,000 | $10,000 | $2,000 | $109,000 |
| Equity research (regional IB) | $110,000 | $40,000 | $0 | $150,000 |
| Investment banking (bulge bracket) | $125,000 | $70,000 | $0 | $195,000 |
| Prop trading-adjacent analytics | $130,000 | $50,000 | $0 | $180,000 |
The investment banking and trading rows are not typical for the full analyst population — they sit above the 90th percentile on total cash — but they’re accessible in Chicago in a way they simply are not in most other US metros.
Cost-of-living adjusted perspective
Chicago’s cost-of-living index of 107 — 7% above the US national average of 100 — makes it meaningfully more affordable than the other major financial hubs. Compare that to New York City (COL index ~187), San Francisco (~179), or even Boston (~162). Chicago’s housing market is the dominant driver: median rent for a one-bedroom in the Loop and River North runs $1,900–$2,400 per month, versus $3,200–$4,500 in Manhattan or $3,500–$4,800 in San Francisco.
Run the COL-adjusted math on a Chicago median financial analyst salary of $102,000: in purchasing power terms, that’s equivalent to roughly $127,000 in New York and $131,000 in San Francisco. Or put differently — to match the purchasing power of a $102,000 Chicago salary, a New York employer needs to pay you about $190,000 and a San Francisco employer about $183,000. Most New York financial analyst roles do not clear that bar at the analyst level.
This is the real case for Chicago over New York at the early-to-mid career stage: the professional access is nearly as good (major banks, asset managers, and research shops all maintain meaningful Chicago operations), the compensation differential at the analyst level is narrower than most people expect, and your take-home purchasing power is materially higher. The calculus shifts at VP and MD levels, where New York’s absolute numbers pull ahead significantly.
Dallas and Houston, with COL indices around 99–103, are near parity with Chicago on cost of living but run 10–15% lower on base for financial analyst roles. Chicago retains an edge in total real wages for analysts in financial services.
Three-lever negotiation playbook
Most financial analyst candidates in Chicago leave money on the table by treating the offer as a take-it-or-leave-it transaction. Three specific moves change that:
1. Anchor to P75, not the median
The BLS P75 for Chicago financial analysts is $135,000 base. If you have three or more years of directly relevant experience, a CFA progress, and are interviewing for a senior analyst role, P75 is a defensible anchor — not a reach number. Present the BLS OEWS data explicitly: “Based on BLS OEWS data for Chicago financial analysts, the 75th percentile base is $135,000. Given my background in [specific modeling skill / industry knowledge], I’d like to target that range.” Framing your ask with government labor data signals market knowledge and keeps the conversation factual rather than adversarial.
If you’re interviewing for a standard mid-level analyst role with two to four years of experience, P60–P65 (roughly $115,000–$120,000) is the right anchor, still above median but justifiable.
2. Negotiate total cash, not just base
At firms with variable pay structures — investment banks, asset managers, insurance companies — the bonus target percentage is often more negotiable than the base band. A recruiter telling you “base is capped at $105,000 for this level” may have the authority to move your target bonus from 10% to 15% of base, which adds $5,250 annually. Over four years, that’s $21,000 before any compounding effects. Ask specifically: “Is there flexibility in the target bonus percentage, or in the signing bonus?” The signing bonus is especially negotiable when changing industries (e.g., moving from public accounting to corporate finance) and you’re walking away from a year-end bonus at your current employer.
3. Time your ask around credential milestones
The CFA charter changes the negotiating dynamic in ways that a counter-offer alone does not. Many Chicago employers have explicit band adjustments for CFA charterholders — $8,000–$15,000 in base — but those adjustments often require you to initiate the conversation. If you’re sitting for Level III and expect to receive results in August, start your renegotiation conversation in September with your credential in hand. Similarly, if your employer paid for an MBA or CFA prep course, that investment signals they want to retain you — use it as leverage. “I just completed the CFA program. I’d like to align my compensation to the market rate for a charterholder in this role” is a specific, defensible ask that most managers will take seriously.
Data caveats
BLS OEWS is the most rigorous public wage data available — employer-reported, statistically sampled, covering millions of workers — but several limitations apply here:
Variable pay is excluded. BLS measures straight wages paid by employers, not bonuses, commissions, or profit-sharing. For sell-side and buy-side financial roles, this means BLS base figures substantially understate real-world total cash compensation. The investment banking and trading rows in the total comp table above rely on industry surveys and reporting from sources like Wall Street Oasis and sector compensation studies, not BLS.
The SOC code aggregates very different roles. SOC 13-2051 (Financial and Investment Analysts) bundles entry-level FP&A associates, senior equity researchers, credit analysts, and portfolio risk analysts into a single occupation. The percentile spread — $81,000 at P25 to $167,000 at P90 — is a direct consequence of that aggregation, not just experience variation.
May 2024 data has a lag. The May 2024 OEWS release represents wages as of May 2024. Chicago’s financial sector has seen modest wage growth of approximately 3–5% since then, meaning current 2026 actuals likely run $5,000–$8,000 above these figures at every percentile.
Metro area includes suburban employers. The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin MSA covers Cook, DuPage, Lake, and several surrounding counties. Suburban employers in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, and insurance typically pay at or below the metro median. If you’re targeting roles in the Loop or River North financial district, skew your expectations toward the upper half of these ranges.
For the most granular current data, supplement BLS with the CFA Institute’s annual compensation survey (covers charter-holding analysts specifically), the Association for Financial Professionals’ FP&A compensation survey, and posted salary ranges now required under Illinois pay transparency law — which went into effect January 1, 2025 and requires employers with 15+ Illinois employees to disclose pay ranges on job postings.