Chicago restaurant pay rules (2026): wages, tips, scheduling and sick leave

Chicago's minimum wage went up to $17.05 an hour on July 1, 2026, for employers with 4 or more employees (Chicago BACP). Tipped workers stay at $12.96: the city paused the phase-out of its tip credit and holds it at 24% of the minimum wage through June 30, 2028 (Chicago one-pager). The city also runs its own paid leave law, with two banks of leave instead of one, and a Fair Workweek law that covers large restaurant groups.

This page puts what a restaurant or café in Chicago owes in one place: the city's own rules first, then the Illinois and federal rules that apply in Chicago as everywhere else in the state, two example weeks with the math shown, and what Mays does with each. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Updated October 5, 2026: these figures are still current. Chicago's minimum wage is $17.05 an hour ($12.96 cash wage for tipped employees) through June 30, 2027. It changes on July 1, 2027; the new rate had not been published when we checked (Chicago release).

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

Chicago pay rules at a glance

As of September 7, 2026:

Sources: Chicago BACP; Chicago one-pager; 56 Ill. Adm. Code 210; Chicago release; US DOL, state minimum wage laws; Chicago Fair Workweek.

Who Chicago's rate covers: employers with 4 or more employees (domestic workers covered regardless of employer size); work performed within the City of Chicago.

Chicago vs. Illinois: what the city changes

Where Chicago sets a rule of its own, it applies on top of Illinois's, and an employer follows whichever gives the employee more. Here are the two side by side:

Our data has no Chicago rule of its own on overtime, breaks, tip pools or food handler training, so the Illinois and federal rules below apply in Chicago as they do across the state. For Illinois's rules in full, with their own worked examples, see Illinois restaurant pay rules (2026).

What you must pay tipped staff in Chicago

Under Illinois law, a tipped employee is someone in a job where tips are customarily part of the pay who receives $20 or more a month in tips (56 Ill. Adm. Code 210).

In a restaurant that usually means servers, bartenders, bussers and counter staff who serve customers, including baristas who get tips. Cooks and dishwashers usually aren't tipped employees. If someone works two jobs, say a server who also works prep shifts, the tip credit applies only to the hours in the tipped job (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

You can pay tipped staff a lower cash wage and count part of their tips toward the minimum wage. That is the tip credit, and it comes with conditions:

• Pay at least $12.96 an hour in cash wages. That's the $17.05 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $4.09 (Chicago BACP).
• Cash wages plus tips must reach $17.05 for every hour worked, week by week. If tips fall short in a workweek, you pay the difference by the regular payday for that week (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Tell them first. Before you take the tip credit, tell each tipped employee, in writing or out loud: the cash wage you pay, the tip credit you claim, that the credit can't be more than the tips they actually get, that they keep all their tips except through a valid tip pool, and that the credit doesn't apply unless you've told them all this (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Overtime is figured on the full minimum wage. An overtime hour is worth 1.5 × $17.05 = $25.575. After the $4.09 tip credit, you pay at least $21.485 of it in cash wages (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

You don't have to take the tip credit. If you pay tipped staff the full $17.05 an hour, their tips are all on top and there's nothing to make up at the end of the week.

Chicago's tipped wage until 2028

The city says the $12.96 tipped wage stays where it is until the next scheduled tipped increase on July 1, 2028 (Chicago release). Chicago also publishes overtime minimums: $25.58 an hour, and $21.49 in cash wages for tipped workers (Chicago one-pager).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Chicago

Cooks, dishwashers, prep cooks, and cashiers or counter staff who don't get tips are paid like any other hourly employee:

• At least $17.05 an hour for every hour worked (Chicago BACP). No tip credit applies.
• The same goes for a tipped employee's hours in a non-tipped job, like a server's prep shift (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Overtime is at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. At $17.05 an hour, that's $25.575 (US DOL, state minimum wage laws).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are the ones that apply in Chicago as of September 7, 2026.

A server's week: when you have to top up

Sam is a server in Chicago paid the $12.96 cash wage. He works 30 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $450.00 in tips and a slow one with $80.00.

In the slow week, $80.00 in tips covers only part of the $122.70 tip credit (30 × $4.09), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $511.50 − $468.80 = $42.70. In the busy week you owe nothing extra, and every dollar of tips is still Sam's.

A cook's week with overtime

Ana is a line cook in Chicago paid the minimum wage, $17.05 an hour. She works five 9-hour days: 45 hours.

Overtime is counted by the workweek, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks: a long week earns overtime even if the next one is short (US DOL, overtime). Bonuses can change the rate too; see Time clock, breaks and overtime: first-month payroll mistakes to avoid.

Scheduling rules in Chicago

Chicago has a fair workweek law of its own, and it covers restaurants, if they are big enough (Chicago Fair Workweek):

• Who it covers: Restaurants: covered. Employers primarily in one of 7 industries (building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, warehouse services) with 100+ employees globally (250+ for not-for-profits) and 50+ covered employees. Restaurants need 250+ employees and 30+ locations globally, and franchisees must also own 4+ Chicago locations. Covered employees earn $33.85/hour or less, or $64,945.55/year or less (from July 1, 2026).
• What it requires: Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance (MCC Ch. 6-110), enforced by BACP Office of Labor Standards. Schedules 14 days ahead; workers may decline unscheduled hours added within 14 days. Rest: workers may decline shifts starting less than 10 hours after the previous day's shift; such shifts pay 1.25x for the whole shift even if the worker consented (2026 rules). Good-faith estimate at hire covering the first 90 days: weekly hours, days, times, locations and on-call (2026 rules). Access to hours: additional shifts are offered in writing to existing covered employees first. The rules in effect from June 1, 2026 require predictability pay and rest pay to be itemized and paid by the next payday.
• Advance notice: post schedules at least 14 days ahead.
• Pay for changes: For employer-imposed changes within 14 days of the schedule: 1 hour of predictability pay per shift when hours are added (a change of more than 15 minutes) or the date or time changes with no loss of hours. Cutting hours more than 24 hours before the shift: 1 hour. Cancelling or cutting hours less than 24 hours before the shift: at least 50% of pay for the lost hours. No pay is owed for changes the worker asks for in writing (2026 rules), leave use, shift trades, or hours taken through the access-to-hours offer.
• Rest between shifts: the law protects the worker who closes and then opens less than 10 hours later (a "clopening"); what it takes, consent or extra pay, is in "What it requires" above.

If your restaurant group is smaller than that, the law doesn't reach you. If it's covered, keep a record of every schedule you post and every change after it: the pay for changes is owed shift by shift.

In plain terms, a restaurant is covered when the group has 250 or more employees and 30 or more locations worldwide, and the law protects employees who earn $33.85 an hour or less (Chicago Fair Workweek).

Paid sick leave in Chicago

Chicago has a paid sick leave ordinance of its own (Chicago release):

• How it's earned: 1 hour Paid Sick & Safe Leave per 35 hours worked (max 40 hours per 12 months) PLUS, separately, 1 hour Paid Leave (any reason) per 35 hours worked (max 40 hours per 12 months).
• Who it covers: all employers; employees who work at least 80 hours within any 120-day period in Chicago.
• What else it requires: Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance (MCC 6-130): 5 days of paid sick leave plus 5 days of paid leave for any reason. Paid sick leave is usable by day 30 of employment and up to 80 hours carry over; paid leave is usable by day 90 and up to 16 hours carry over (if it isn't front-loaded). An employer may set a minimum amount per use of up to 2 hours of sick leave and 4 hours of paid leave. At separation, employers with 51 or more employees pay out up to 56 hours of unused paid leave; employers with 1 to 50 employees don't (2026 notice). Employees can sue over paid leave violations from July 1, 2026.

Illinois's own paid leave law doesn't apply in Chicago, because the city's ordinance came first (IDOL, paid leave FAQ).

Tip pools, overtime and breaks in Chicago

These are Illinois's rules, with the federal ones where Illinois sets none, and they apply in Chicago as they do across the state:

• Tip pools: In Illinois, gratuities belong to employees, employers may not keep them, and they must be paid within 13 days after the end of the pay period. Tip pooling "as permitted by law" is allowed. From card tips an employer may withhold a proportionate share of the processing fee, capped at the tip’s share of the bill. Illinois sets no rule of its own on who may be in a pool, so the federal rules on that apply (820 ILCS 115/4.1). Under federal law, the business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips, and with a tip credit a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (US DOL, tips).
• Service charges: under federal law a mandatory service charge isn't a tip: money you share from one is wages, and it counts in the regular rate for overtime (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Overtime: Illinois's law draws the same line as the federal one (US DOL, state minimum wage laws): at least 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, with no daily overtime, double time or seventh-day premium (US DOL, overtime).
• Meal breaks: At least 20 minutes for employees working 7.5 continuous hours, beginning no later than 5 hours after the start of the work period, plus an additional 20-minute meal period for every additional 4.5 continuous hours worked (IDOL: e.g. a second 20-minute break on a 12-hour shift). Restroom time does not count toward the meal period. Employer may not force an employee to work through the meal break; if the employee works through it, it must be paid. Excludes employees whose meal periods are set by collective bargaining. Penalties: <25 employees up to $250 per offense to employee + $250 per employee to IDOL; 25+ employees up to $500 each; each day a meal period is missed is a separate offense (820 ILCS 140/3).
• Rest breaks: No specific Illinois rule found — federal rules apply (820 ILCS 140/3.1). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
• Minors' breaks: Minors (under 16 under the new Act): no more than 5 hours continuously without at least a 30-minute meal period; periods under 30 minutes do not interrupt continuous work. 16- and 17-year-olds follow the adult One Day Rest in Seven Act rule (20 minutes for 7.5 hours) (Child Labor Law of 2024).

Other rules that affect pay in Chicago

• Food handler training: Every food employee needs approved food-safety training. Who: all food handlers employed by a restaurant (other than food service sanitation manager certificate holders), within 30 days after employment and every 3 years thereafter (410 ILCS 625/3.06).

How Mays handles this

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For a restaurant in Chicago, that means:

• The minimum wage for the address. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays reads each location's minimum wage from its address: a location whose city is Chicago gets Chicago's $17.05, and tipped positions are compared with the $12.96 cash wage. It warns you when a position's default wage, someone's hourly wage or a punch is below it, and never blocks the save. The rate for July 1, 2027 isn't published yet; once Mays has it, admins get a reminder 30 and 7 days before.
• Paid sick leave per location. With Labor law compliance on, the Sick category under Scheduling → Settings → Time off & PTO accrual shows the paid sick leave law at each location's address, and Apply these rules fills in its figures, starting with at least one hour for every 35 worked (Chicago release). Illinois's law is left out, because Chicago's replaces it. If the location's address doesn't name Chicago, pick Chicago under Where this location is. Everyone who works hours earns it from approved punches, managers included, and a figure Mays doesn't have is left open for you to fill in from the official page.
• Chicago's scheduling law is yours to track. Mays doesn't check how far ahead a schedule is posted, doesn't compute pay for changes after it's posted, and doesn't warn about a closing shift followed too soon by an opening one. If your restaurant is covered, keep those records yourself.
• Overtime by the address. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag, and timesheets run by pay period. Overtime is counted by the workweek, and with Labor law compliance on, by any daily, double-time and seventh-day rule Illinois sets too, which Mays reads from the location's address; the schedule's labor cost, the reports and the pay summary all include it.
• A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, and choose which positions receive. Leave managers and admins out of the pool is on by default, so leave it on. If you take your card processor's fee out of card tips, turn on Deduct the card processing fee from card tips: Mays deducts only your processor's percentage, split in proportion to each person's card tips. Each person's share appears in the Tip Payouts report and the payroll export.
• The tip-credit make-up is yours to check. Mays doesn't compare a tipped employee's cash wages plus tips with the minimum wage, so check each workweek the way the server example above does.
• Food handler cards. Turn on Labor law compliance and keep each person's card in Mays with its expiry date and a photo. Each location shows who has no card by the 30-day deadline after their hire date and whose card is about to expire, and Mays reminds the employee and their managers before a card expires.
• Chicago's second bank of leave. The preset covers Paid Sick and Safe Leave. For Chicago's Paid Leave, which employees can use for any reason, add a second category under Time off & PTO accrual with Add category, tick This is paid sick / safe leave, set it to accrue Per hour worked, one hour for every 35 worked, and instead of applying the preset to it, fill in Stop earning at 40 hours, Carry over up to 16 hours and Usable 90 days after hire (Chicago release).

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

• City of Chicago, minimum wage information (BACP), checked October 5, 2026
• City of Chicago, minimum wage one-pager from July 1, 2026, checked October 5, 2026
• City of Chicago, June 2026 release on the minimum wage increase and workers’ rights ordinances, checked October 5, 2026
• Illinois Administrative Code, 56 Ill. Adm. Code 210 (Minimum Wage Law rules), checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, state minimum wage laws, checked September 24, 2026
• City of Chicago, Fair Workweek Ordinance (BACP), checked October 5, 2026
• Illinois Department of Labor, minimum wage and overtime FAQ, checked September 24, 2026
• Illinois Department of Labor, Minimum Wage Law, checked September 24, 2026
• 820 ILCS 105/4, checked September 24, 2026
• Illinois Department of Labor, Paid Leave for All Workers Act FAQ, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15: tipped employees under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, overtime pay, checked September 24, 2026
• 820 ILCS 115/4.1, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, tips under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• 820 ILCS 140/3, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, breaks and meal periods, checked September 24, 2026
• 820 ILCS 140/3.1, checked September 24, 2026
• Illinois Child Labor Law of 2024 (820 ILCS 206), checked September 24, 2026
• 410 ILCS 625/3.06, checked September 24, 2026

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer or accountant about your situation.

Run Chicago payroll on the right numbers

Give each location its Chicago address, turn on Labor law compliance so the minimum wage, overtime and sick leave rules follow it, and let the time clock do the counting. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

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