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Illinois minimum wage 2026

$15.00 an hour, or $9.00 for tipped workers when tips make up the rest. Below: how to tell if a slow week still left you short.

In effect on November 4, 2026

Minimum wage$15.00/hSince January 1, 2025
Tipped cash wage$9.00/hTip credit up to $6.00 an hour
40-hour week$600.00At the minimum wage, before tax

Illinois minimum wage per day, week, month and year

Full time at Illinois’s minimum wage ($15.00), before tax, without tips or overtime. A month is the year divided by 12 (52 weeks of 40 hours).
HoursPay
Per hour1$15.00
Per day8$120.00
Per week40$600.00
Every two weeks80$1,200.00
Per month173.3$2,600.00
Per year2,080$31,200.00

With a tip credit, your employer can pay you $9.00 an hour, but your wages plus tips have to reach $15.00 for every hour you work that week: $600.00 for a 40-hour week.

Will Illinois’s minimum wage go up in 2027?

No increase has been passed for 2027: it stays at $15.00 unless the law changes.

Cities and counties with their own minimum wage in Illinois

Illinois lets cities and counties set a higher minimum wage. If you work in one of them, your employer has to pay the higher rate.

Rates in effect on October 5, 2026, from each place’s official page. Where a place has more than one rate, this is the one for the largest employers, and the notes (*) say who gets a different one.
PlacePer hourTippedSinceNext increase
Chicago*$17.05$12.96July 1, 2026Not announced yet
Cook County*$15.40$9.25July 1, 2026Not announced yet
  • * Chicago: for employers with 4 or more employees; smaller ones pay the Illinois minimum ($15.00).
  • * Cook County: for employers with 4 or more employees. Many suburbs opted out of the county minimum.

How the tip credit works in Illinois

Employers in Illinois can pay tipped workers $9.00 an hour as long as your wages plus tips for the workweek come to at least $15.00 for every hour worked. If they don’t, the employer has to pay the difference.

For example, 30 hours at $9.00 comes to $270.00. With $100.00 in tips, you’d have $370.00. The minimum for 30 hours is $450.00, so your employer owes you $80.00.

Try it with your own numbers.

Good to know

Applies to employers with 4 or more employees.

Overtime

Under federal law, hours over 40 in a workweek are paid at time and a half (1.5 times your regular rate): at Illinois’s minimum, at least $22.50 an hour. Illinois has no daily overtime: a 12-hour double only gets you overtime if it takes your week past 40 hours.

With a tip credit, your employer still has to pay you at least $16.50 in cash wages for each overtime hour: $22.50 minus the $6.00 tip credit. How overtime works with tips.

PayJar applies weekly overtime from the start and lets you turn on daily overtime and double time. Add up your week’s hours and overtime in the time card calculator.

Illinois and its neighbors

Hourly rates in effect on November 4, 2026.
StateMinimum wageTipped cash wage
Illinois$15.00$9.00
Missouri$15.00$7.50
Indiana$7.25$2.13
Iowa$7.25$4.35
Kentucky$7.25$2.13
Wisconsin$7.25$2.33

Questions

What is the minimum wage in Illinois?
$15.00 an hour, in effect on November 4, 2026.
What is the tipped minimum wage in Illinois?
$9.00 an hour, as long as your wages plus tips for the week reach $15.00 for every hour worked. Otherwise the employer makes up the difference.
How much do you have to be paid per hour in Illinois?
At least $15.00 an hour, and $22.50 for each overtime hour (over 40 in a week). If you get tips, your employer can pay you $9.00 an hour and count your tips toward those amounts.
How much is the minimum wage per month in Illinois?
$2,600.00 a month working 40 hours a week, before tax. That’s $600.00 a week and $31,200.00 a year.
What is the minimum wage in Chicago?
$17.05 an hour since July 1, 2026, above the Illinois minimum ($15.00).
Will Illinois’s minimum wage go up in 2027?
No increase has been passed for 2027: it stays at $15.00 unless the law changes.
Is the minimum wage before or after taxes?
Before. It’s your gross pay per hour; the taxes withheld from your check come out of it.
What can I do if I’m paid less than the minimum?
Keep your pay stubs and a record of your hours. Call the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243: it’s free and confidential, and help is available in more than 200 languages. You can also file with your state labor department.
Does the minimum wage apply if I’m undocumented?
Yes. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division “enforces the law without regard to an employee’s immigration status,” and all complaints are confidential.

Other states

See every state in one table

General information, not legal advice. Your state labor department has the final word, and some cities, counties and industries have higher minimums.

Sources

Stop wondering if your check is right.

PayJar knows your state’s minimum wage and tipped wage. Log your shifts and tips, and it tells you when a week comes up short.

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