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🇺🇸United States · High income · 2026-Q3

Chicago

57composite score · #16 of 50

MEDIUM · sourced, not yet live-verified

MEDIUM. The one cited source (Gridwise) is a tier-3 industry blog and carries only a national DoorDash median of $11.26/hr; it does not carry the published $18.50/hr, which is an internal blend. Three unsourced third-party hourly figures previously quoted in this field have been removed: none carried a URL, and one was a blocklisted aggregator, which is the reference class that caused the Round A/B demotions. Promote only on a Chicago-specific tier-1/2 source; none is known to exist.

Only HIGH-confidence cities carry a full verification audit. See the methodology for what each tier means.

Earnings (USD per hour)

Net, after tax & expensesn/a
Gross$18.50/hr

Source: Internal blended estimate (no Chicago-specific source exists)

What would you take home in Chicago?

30hrs

Take-home, weekly

n/a

Take-home, monthly

n/a

Gross, weekly

$555

Gross, monthly

$2,405

Take-home is gross hourly minus an estimated tax/expense rate per country. See the methodology page for the derivation. This widget assumes you actually work the hours you set. For app-based delivery, a portion of logged-in time is unpaid waiting; the headline rate reflects engaged time only where regulators have defined it.

Cost of living vs. earnings

Hours of work for one month's rent (1BR outside centre)285 hours
Rent, 1BR outside centre$1658/mo
Restaurant meal (mid-range)$20.00

Pay vs. local labour market

Minimum wage$17.05/hr
Median wage (all occupations)$26.31/hr

Gross hourly is 51% of local minimum wage, 33% of local median.

View Chicago on the interactive map

See full source citations for this city on the sources page. Read about how each metric is computed in the methodology.

Primary earnings source: gridwise.io/blog/how-much-do-doordash-drivers-make · archived