Guides

Illinois restaurant pay rules (2026): what to pay tipped and non-tipped staff

Mays TeamSeptember 2, 2026
The Worked Hours & Wages report in Mays for one week in August: a line cook's hours and wages at $15.00 an hour, and a server's hours, wages at $9.00 an hour and tips

Illinois reached a $15.00 minimum wage on January 1, 2025, the last step written into state law, and it isn't tied to inflation, so it stays there until lawmakers change it (820 ILCS 105/4). Tipped staff can be paid $9.00 an hour, because an employer may count tips for up to 40% of the minimum wage (820 ILCS 105/4). Chicago and parts of suburban Cook County set higher rates of their own, with their own tipped wages.

This page puts Illinois's figures in one place. It covers what you owe tipped staff like servers and bartenders, what you owe everyone else, and two example weeks with the math shown. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Updated September 24, 2026: these figures are still current. Illinois's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour ($9.00 cash wage for tipped employees). No increase is scheduled.

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.

Illinois pay rules at a glance

As of September 2, 2026:

Rule

Illinois

Minimum wage

$15.00 an hour, since January 1, 2025

Tipped employees: minimum cash wage

$9.00 an hour, if you take the tip credit

Maximum tip credit

$6.00 an hour

Who counts as tipped

Receives $20 or more a month in tips

Overtime

1.5× the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek; no daily overtime

Meal and rest breaks for adults

Illinois has break rules; see Breaks below

Next change

None scheduled

Sources: IDOL, minimum wage FAQ; IDOL, Minimum Wage Law; 56 Ill. Adm. Code 210; US DOL, state minimum wage laws; 820 ILCS 105/4.

Other Illinois rates:

  • employees under 18 (until 650 hours with the employer in a calendar year): $13.00 an hour
  • non-tipped employees 18+, first 90 days: $14.50 an hour

Who counts as a tipped employee in Illinois

In Illinois, 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. Only tips the employee actually receives count. 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).

Each time the tip credit you take per hour changes, tell the employee in writing (56 Ill. Adm. Code 210).

What you must pay tipped staff in Illinois

Servers, bartenders, bussers and baristas who get tips can be paid a lower cash wage, with part of their tips counted toward the minimum wage. That's the tip credit, and it comes with conditions:

  • Pay at least $9.00 an hour in cash wages. That's the $15.00 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $6.00 (IDOL, Minimum Wage Law).
  • Cash wages plus tips must reach $15.00 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 × $15.00 = $22.50. After the $6.00 tip credit, you pay at least $16.50 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 $15.00 an hour, their tips are all on top, there's nothing to make up at the end of the week, and you can put kitchen staff in the tip pool (see below).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Illinois

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

  • At least $15.00 an hour for every hour worked (IDOL, minimum wage FAQ). 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 $15.00 an hour, that's $22.50 (US DOL, state minimum wage laws).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are Illinois's as of September 2, 2026.

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

Sam is a server paid the $9.00 cash wage. He works 26 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $450.00 in tips and a slow one with $100.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

26

26

Cash wages (26 × $9.00)

$234.00

$234.00

Tips received

$450.00

$100.00

Cash wages + tips

$684.00

$334.00

Minimum for the week (26 × $15.00)

$390.00

$390.00

You pay on top

$0.00

$56.00

In the slow week, $100.00 in tips covers only part of the $156.00 tip credit (26 × $6.00), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $390.00 − $334.00 = $56.00. 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 paid the Illinois minimum wage, $15.00 an hour. She works five 9-hour days: 45 hours.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$15.00

$600.00

Overtime hours (over 40)

5

$22.50 (1.5 × $15.00)

$112.50

Total

45


$712.50

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.

Tip pooling rules in Illinois

Illinois has its own tip-pool rules (820 ILCS 115/4.1): 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.

Federal rules apply too, and where the two differ, follow the stricter one (US DOL, tips):

  • The business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips. A manager can't take anything from a pool; they may keep only tips for service they directly and solely provide. An owner with a real stake who helps run the business counts as a manager too.
  • With a tip credit, a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips: servers, bartenders, bussers, counter staff who serve customers.
  • Without a tip credit, when everyone in the pool gets at least the full minimum wage, you can include cooks and dishwashers.
  • Card fees: you may reduce a card tip by the percentage the card company actually charges you, and no more (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Service charges aren't tips. Money you share with staff from a mandatory service charge is wages, and it counts in the regular rate for overtime (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Pay pooled tips out by the regular payday for the week or pay period (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

How to split a pool fairly, with a worked example: Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.

Overtime in Illinois

Illinois's overtime law draws the same line as the federal one (US DOL, state minimum wage laws): non-exempt employees get at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek (US DOL, overtime).

A workweek is any fixed, recurring stretch of seven days that you choose, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks. There's no daily overtime, no double time and no seventh-day premium under Illinois or federal law, and weekend or holiday hours don't earn a premium by law.

For tipped staff, overtime is figured on the full minimum wage, not the cash wage (see the tipped section above).

Breaks in Illinois

  • 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: 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 Illinois rules that affect pay

  • Paid sick leave: Paid Leave for All Workers Act (PLAWA): up to 40 hours/year of paid leave usable for any reason (not only sickness), earned at 1 hour per 40 worked or front-loaded; usable after 90 days; no reason or documentation may be required. Tipped employees must be paid at least the full minimum wage for leave taken (IDOL, paid leave FAQ).
  • 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).

Local rates in Illinois

These cities and counties set their own minimum wage, as recorded on September 24, 2026. An employer pays the highest rate that applies where the work is done.

Area

Minimum wage

Tipped cash wage

Next change

Chicago

$17.05 (since July 1, 2026)

$12.96

July 1, 2027 (rate not published yet)

Cook County

$15.40 (since July 1, 2026)

$9.25

July 1, 2027 (rate not published yet)

Sources: Chicago BACP; Cook County. "Not recorded" means we found no local tipped figure; check the city's page.

Local ordinances on other rules (sick leave, scheduling): Evanston.

Chicago's tipped wage

Chicago's minimum wage applies to employers with 4 or more employees (Chicago BACP). From July 1, 2026, its tip credit stays at 24% of the minimum wage through June 30, 2028 (Chicago one-pager), and the city says the $12.96 tipped wage stays where it is until the next scheduled increase on July 1, 2028 (Chicago release). Chicago's overtime minimums are $25.58 an hour, and $21.49 for tipped workers (Chicago one-pager).

Cook County

Cook County's rate never applies in Chicago, and not in the suburbs that opted out; the county says that list changes often, so check with your town. It doesn't cover minors (Cook County).

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For Illinois pay rules, that means:

  • Positions and wages. Give each position a default hourly wage, for example the tipped cash wage for servers and at least the minimum wage for cooks. Mays doesn't check wages against the minimum wage, so update them yourself when the rate changes.
  • A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, per pay period or day by day, and choose which positions receive. Until you choose, everyone who worked gets a share, cooks included, so if you take a tip credit, pick only tipped positions, and make sure every punch carries a position: once positions are picked, a punch without one gets no share. When you set it up, turn on Leave managers and admins out of the pool: it's off by default. The tips come from your connected POS at that location (Square) or from tips synced with 7shifts time punches, and 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.
  • Time clock and timesheets. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag. Timesheets run by pay period, and overtime is counted by the workweek, with an optional daily threshold for states that have one.
  • Payroll export. A standard CSV or a Gusto-format CSV with regular and overtime hours and pooled tips for each employee.
  • Minors. Mays doesn't track minors' hours or breaks, so build a minor's meal break into their shifts when you schedule them.
  • Fair Workweek scheduling isn't tracked. If your restaurant group is big enough for Chicago's or Evanston's Fair Workweek law, Mays won't track advance notice, predictability pay or rest between shifts for you.

Sources

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

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 Illinois payroll on the right numbers

Set each position's wage, turn on the tip pool with managers left out, and let the time clock count overtime by the workweek. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Setting up a tip pool? Read Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.