Illinois Minimum Wage 2026

Where the rate stands

Illinois reached $15.00 an hour on 1 January 2025, completing the six-year schedule set by Public Act 101-1 in 2019. Since then it has not moved, and nothing in the statute moves it — Illinois did not build inflation indexing into the law, so the rate stays at $15.00 until the General Assembly passes something new. That is a meaningful difference from Chicago and Cook County, both of which index annually and both of which have therefore pulled ahead.

How Illinois got to $15

The tipped minimum tracked the standard rate throughout at 60% of it, because the Illinois Minimum Wage Law caps the tip credit at 40% and has done so consistently. That mechanism, and what happens when tips fall short, is covered in detail on the tipped wage calculator.

The three Illinois minimum wages

Ask what the minimum wage is in Illinois and the honest answer is that it depends where you are standing, because two local ordinances sit on top of the state floor:

Cook County's ordinance carries a wrinkle that catches people out: municipalities were permitted to opt out, and a great many suburban ones did. A worker in an opted-out municipality is on the state $15.00 even though the county rate is higher, and the county publishes a list of which municipalities the ordinance actually reaches. Chicago sits outside the county ordinance entirely and runs its own.

Notably, none of this affects income tax. Illinois has a single flat rate and no municipal wage tax anywhere, so a minimum wage worker in Chicago and one in Carbondale face identical withholding on identical gross pay — the difference is entirely in the gross. That is why the Chicago paycheck calculator differs from the statewide one in its wage floors and its sales tax discussion, and not at all in its tax arithmetic.

What the minimum wage leaves you

A full-time year at $15.00 an hour — 40 hours a week, 52 weeks — is $31,200 of gross pay. For a single filer with no dependents and no pre-tax deductions, here is where it goes in 2026:

That is an effective tax rate of 17.6% — and notice that FICA, not income tax, is the largest single deduction at this wage level. It is the one line a low earner cannot reduce: the standard deduction shelters most of the federal income tax and the Illinois exemption chips at the state figure, but Social Security and Medicare apply from the first dollar. The same year at Chicago's $17.05 comes to $35,464 gross and about $28,920 after tax, roughly $3,215 more in hand. A fuller breakdown of every line on a stub is on the deductions guide.

Overtime, rest days and paid leave

The minimum wage sets the floor; three other Illinois rules shape what a low-wage week actually looks like:

• Overtime at one and a half times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek. Illinois has no daily overtime and no Sunday or holiday premium. The regular rate has to include nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials, which is where underpayments usually start — the overtime calculator works it through.
• One Day Rest In Seven. At least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every rolling seven-day period, plus a 20-minute meal break for shifts of 7.5 continuous hours and a further 20 minutes for each additional 4.5 hours. Penalties run to $500 per offense plus $500 in damages per employee for larger employers.
• Paid Leave for All Workers. Since 1 January 2024, one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, usable for any reason and without documentation, after 90 days of employment. Employers covered by the Chicago or Cook County paid leave ordinances follow those instead, and Chicago's is more generous.

Who is covered, and who is not

The Illinois Minimum Wage Law reaches employers with four or more employees, not counting family members. Below that threshold the federal minimum of $7.25 may still apply. Section 3 of the Act then carves out several categories: certain agricultural and aquacultural workers, outside salespeople, members of religious corporations and organizations, students employed by their own accredited Illinois college or university, motor carrier drivers under federal regulation, and certain minor league baseball personnel. Separately, subminimum wage certificates for workers with disabilities are being phased out entirely by 31 December 2029.

If you are being paid less than the floor

Illinois gives underpaid workers unusually strong remedies. Under 820 ILCS 105/12 you may recover three times the underpayment, plus 5% of it per month until paid, plus costs and attorney's fees, and the Department of Labor can add up to 20% more for willful or repeated violations. The first step is almost always documentary: gather pay stubs and hours records, which your employer is now required to provide and retain under the Pay Stub Protection Act. Where the problem is not the base rate but the overtime rate — a bonus left out of the regular rate, or a tipped overtime rate calculated on the cash wage — the two calculators linked above will show you the size of the gap before you raise it.

Work out your own numbers