Forbes’ 25 Best Employers In Illinois 2025 List Left Off A Big Company

You may not have guessed some of the top 25 employers for this year.

For the 7th year, Forbes has come out with it's Best Employers in Illinois list and there's a big name that doesn't crack the top 25.

To come up with the list, Forbes teams up with market research company Statista to survey over 160,000 employees who work for a company of at least 500 in the United States.

Survey respondents were asked about:

• how likely they would be to recommend their employer on a scale of 1-10
• evaluate their employer based on wage parity, work culture, paths to professional advancement, and whether the employer acts on serious issues like sexual harassment
• evaluate their previous employers (within the last 2 years)
• evaluate organizations they knew within their industry or via friends or family that worked there

Illinois' Top 25 Employers

25. BMO (Bank of Montreal) was founded in 1882 and has it's headquarters in Chicago.

24. Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores is headquartered in Oklahoma City and was founded in 1964. Personally, it's the only gas station I'll stop at when I'm on a road trip.

23. Wintrust was founded in 1991 and the bank is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.

22. Illinois Bone & Joint Institute is out of Des Plaines and was also founded in 1991.

21. Meijer is a supermarket headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was founded in 1934.

20. Accenture was founded in 1989 in New York, New York.

19. BJC Health System is the result of the merger between Barnes-Jewish Inc. and Christian Health Services. They are headquartered in St. Louis.

18. Grainger is based in Lake Forest, Illinois and was founded in 1927.

17. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and has it's headquarters in Rosemond, Washington.

16. Dell Technologies is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas and was founded in 1984.

15. Illinois Institute of Technology was founded in 1890 and is based in Chicago.

14. Edward Jones is out of St. Louis and started in 1922.

13. Humana was founded in 1961 and the insurance company is based in Louisville, Kentucky.

12. AutoZone is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee and got it's start in 1979.

11. Harper College in Palatine, Illinois started in 1967.

10. Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System is based in Maltoon, Illinois and was founded in 1977.

9. IBM is out of Armonk, New York and started in 1911.

8. Silver Cross Hospital started in 1895 in New Lenox, Illinois.

7. Salesforce has it's headquarters in San Francisco and was founded in 1999.

6. Costco was founded in 1989 and is based in Issaquah, Washington.

5. University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority operates out of Madison and was founded in 1924.

4. Fidelity Investments began in 1946 and their headquarters are in Boston.

3. Google started in 1998 and is based in Mountain View, California.

2. Apple is headquartered in Cupertino, California and was founded in 1976.

1. Southwest Airlines has a huge hub at Chicago Midway, though they're based in Dallas. Southwest was started in 1967.

Even though the Moline-based John Deere didn't crack the top 25 Best Employers in Illinois for 2025, Deere is #600 on Forbes' national Best Large Employers list.