Illinois Overtime Laws & Calculator

Weekly. Illinois sets no daily threshold, so a twelve-hour day owes no premium on its own — those hours go into the week's total like any others, and the count that decides your pay is hours past 40 in a single workweek.

No. Four ten-hour days is 40 hours, and the weekly rule starts past 40 hours, not at them. Day length does not matter in Illinois: four tens, five eights and three long shifts all pay the same if the week's total is the same.

No Illinois statute sets a double-time rate. Where double time appears on a stub here it comes from a union agreement, a company policy or a holiday practice — worth having in writing, but it is an agreement rather than the law. What the statute requires is time and a half past 40 hours in a workweek, with no daily threshold.

Illinois has no seventh-day rule. Those hours count toward the workweek like any others, so a seven-day stretch usually produces overtime through the weekly total instead: seven eight-hour days is 56 hours, of which 16 are past 40.

Yes. The Illinois Minimum Wage Law says an employer may not employ an employee for more than 40 hours in a workweek unless the hours over 40 are paid at no less than 1.5 times the regular rate, except as that section otherwise provides (820 ILCS 105/4a(1)). The Illinois Department of Labor describes the rule the same way, and it matches the federal FLSA threshold. The section sets the threshold by the workweek and does not mention a daily threshold. The labor department adds that working a Sunday or a legal holiday does not earn a premium by itself: those hours are paid at time and a half only when they put the week over 40, although if an employer's policy allows time and a half or double time, the employer must honor it. The calculator on this page uses this weekly rule.

The weekly rule is the same (time and a half past 40 hours), so the differences are in who is covered and how the law is written. The Illinois Minimum Wage Law's definition of “employee” leaves out several categories, including people who work for an employer with fewer than four employees (though the definition expressly keeps domestic workers covered), some agricultural workers, and certain motor carrier employees (820 ILCS 105/3(d)). The U.S. Department of Labor describes federal coverage through enterprise tests, such as $500,000 in annual sales or business with at least two employees, or through an employee's own work in interstate commerce. Section 4a(2) of the Illinois law lists its own overtime exemptions, including vehicle and farm-implement salespeople and mechanics at dealerships, agricultural labor, executive, administrative and professional employees (defined by reference to FLSA rules and a salary level), and members of a bargaining unit recognized by the Illinois Labor Relations Board whose union agreed to an alternate shift schedule. Illinois also has a separate One Day Rest in Seven Act (820 ILCS 140/2) that requires 24 consecutive hours of rest in every consecutive seven-day period, with exceptions; the labor department says employers can get permits for voluntary seventh-day work, with the applicable overtime rate paid if the employee works over 40 hours that week, while the Act's text says a domestic worker who voluntarily works the rest day must be paid the overtime rate for all hours worked that day. The calculator on this page uses the weekly 40-hour rule.

The Illinois Department of Labor takes wage claims, including unpaid overtime. Its Unpaid Wages page says you can file online with an Illinois Public ID account, and that claims that are emailed, mailed or faxed take longer to process. The Department's Filing a Claim FAQ, which covers claims for wages, vacation, bonus, commissions or final compensation, says complaints must be filed within one year after the wages were due and that the Department limits its investigation to the three years before the filing date (56 Ill. Adm. Code 300.940, a rule under the Wage Payment and Collection Act); the FAQ does not say whether that one-year window also applies to claims under the Minimum Wage Law. Separately, the Minimum Wage Law lets an employee sue within 3 years of an underpayment for treble the amount owed plus costs, attorney's fees and 5% monthly damages, and lets the Director of Labor bring an action within 5 years for the unpaid overtime plus an equal additional amount (820 ILCS 105/12). For comparison, the U.S. Department of Labor says the FLSA generally uses a 2-year limit, or 3 years for willful violations, with an equal amount as liquidated damages.

Usually, yes. The multiplier is applied to the regular rate, not to your base wage, and the regular rate takes in nondiscretionary bonuses, production and attendance bonuses, and shift differentials for the week they were earned. An overtime hour in a week with a night differential is worth more than base × 1.5. Bonuses that are genuinely discretionary — not promised in advance — stay out of it. The federal rules for building the regular rate are at 29 C.F.R. Part 778 and apply in Illinois.

Not by itself. A salary is a way of paying, not an exemption. The white-collar exemptions turn on the work actually performed together with how and how much you are paid, and the duties tests at 29 C.F.R. Part 541 do not include job titles. A salaried employee whose duties fall outside those tests is owed overtime on the same 40-hour week as anyone else.