Illinois restaurant labor laws

Illinois: overtime after 40h a week, $15.00 minimum wage, 20-min meal break after 7.5h, night limits for minors. Every figure sourced.

The figures ShiftNivo schedules against in Illinois, read from the source linked at the bottom of this page.

Updated October 16, 2026

Start with Illinois' rules loaded →No credit card. Free during early access.

Overtime

Daily: No separate rule*
Weekly: after 40h · 1.5×
Double time: No separate rule*

Rest between shifts: No separate rule*
Eating period: 20 min after 7.5h
Minimum wage: $15.00since 2026-07-01
Default time zone: America/Chicago

* “No separate rule” means the engine does not enforce one here. That is not the same as saying the jurisdiction has none.

City and county minimum wages · 2

Some cities and counties in this state set their own minimum wage or tipped wage above the state's, and a restaurant they cover pays the higher one. When you set a location's labor rules, ShiftNivo offers these right after the state. Figures as they stood on October 16, 2026, from each place's own page or its state's; each place changes them on its own dates, most often January 1 or July 1.

Chicago
Minimum wage
$17.05since July 1, 2026
Tipped cash wage
$12.96since July 1, 2026
Next change
No figure announced yet
Employers with 4 or more employees. The tipped wage stays at 76% of the minimum until its phase-out resumes, in 2028 for employers of 21 or more and in 2030 for smaller ones.
Minimum Wage - City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection
Cook County (outside Chicago)
Minimum wage
$15.40since July 1, 2026
Tipped cash wage
$9.25since July 1, 2026
Next change
No figure announced yet
Employers in suburban Cook County, for staff who work 2 or more hours a week there. Not in Chicago, nor in the suburbs that opted out, a list that changes. Staff under 18 are owed the state's rate.
Cook County Minimum Wage Ordinance FAQ (Commission on Human Rights, July 1, 2026)

Public holidays · 11

A public holiday carries no statutory premium for a private employer under federal law, so these are shown as observed days. Eleven federal holidays are assigned to every state, with a few recognized state holidays added; a state's own full list is not complete here.

Christmas DayDecember 25
Columbus Daysecond Monday in October
Independence DayJuly 4
JuneteenthJune 19
Labor Dayfirst Monday in September
Memorial Daylast Monday in May
Martin Luther King Jr. Daythird Monday in January
New Year's DayJanuary 1
Presidents' Daythird Monday in February
Thanksgivingfourth Thursday in November
Veterans DayNovember 11

Youth hours

The bands the product checks for Illinois. United States figures come from the Department of Labor — its state table as published on 15 July 2025, or its federal rules — and are corrected from the state's own source where the table is wrong. Permits, supervision and exemptions sit underneath every band, and each one says what is not checked. Confirm with the state before relying on them.

Under 14
Not permitted
Federal floor. 14 is the minimum age for most non-agricultural work.
Ages 14 to 15
School day
3h
Non-school day
8h
School week
18h
Week
40h
Not between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
June 1 to Labor Day: not after 9 p.m.
The evening limit moves to 9 p.m. outside the school year. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.
Ages 16 to 17
No hour or night limit
This state sets no hour or nightwork limit at this age. Federal rules on hazardous work still apply. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.

Source: dol.gov/agencies/whd/youthrules · dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/child-labor

Minors →

What ShiftNivo checks for you here

Overtime after 40 hours in a week, priced as you build, with a warning four hours before anyone crosses it.
A shift longer than 7.5 hours without its 20-minute eating period.
Workers under 18: the minimum age, the hours in a day and in a week, and the evening limit, read from a birth date and marked as errors, not warnings.
11 public holidays, each flagged the week before it arrives.
Everywhere: double bookings, approved time off, and shifts outside the hours someone said they can work.

Start with Illinois' rules loaded →

Next door

The rules one border over, for a second location or a team that crosses it.

The federal standard: Federal (FLSA) →All 66 jurisdictions →

This is reference data, not legal advice.

Every figure on this page was read from the source linked beside it and carries the date it took effect. Minimum wages are indexed once or twice a year in most jurisdictions — usually on 1 April or 1 October — so this table is reviewed on a schedule rather than when somebody notices.

Employment standards change, and a restaurant's obligations depend on facts no software can see: an exemption, a collective agreement, a municipal ordinance, the particular job somebody does. Some rules are deliberately not modeled, and where that is true this page says which.

Treat these figures as a starting point. Confirm them against the source before relying on them for pay, and take advice about your own situation.

Found something wrong? Corrections get fixed first. hello@shiftnivo.com

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