Hours worked
Illinois required employee to pay employees for all hours worked. Illinois defines hours worked as all time employees are required to be on duty, on the employer’s premises, at another prescribed place of work, and any additional time they are required or permitted to work. It includes meal periods and time spent by employees on-call away from the employer’s premises if such time is spent predominantly for the benefit of the employer instead of for the employee. IL Admin. Code 210.110
Workweek
Illinois defines a workweek as a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours – seven (7) consecutive 24-hour periods. A workweek does not need to coincide with the calendar week and may begin on any calendar day and at any hour of the day.
An employer may change the beginning of a workweek so long the change is intended to be permanent and is not designed to evade an overtime requirements.
If an employer does not establish a workweek, the default workweek will be the calendar week beginning on Sunday at 12:01 a.m. and ending the following Saturday at 12:00 a.m.
Waiting time
Illinois minimum wage laws do not address when employers must count waiting time as hours worked for purposes of minimum wage and overtime requirements. Because most employees working in Idaho are subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the rules and regulations regarding waiting time set forth in that law provide reasonable guidance.
On-call time
Illinois minimum wage laws require an employer to count as hours worked time spent by employees on-call away from the employer’s premises if the time spent on-call is predominantly for the benefit of the employer and not the employee. IL Admin. Code 210.110
Sleeping time
Illinois minimum wage laws do not address when employers must count sleeping time as hours worked for purposes of minimum wage and overtime requirements. Because most employees working in Idaho are subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the rules and regulations regarding sleeping time set forth in that law provide reasonable guidance.
Travel time
Illinois minimum wage law requires employers to count employee travel time as hours worked if the travel is for the employer’s benefit as defined under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (see FLSA: Travel Time). Examples of travel time that must be paid include travel performed as part of an employee’s primary duties or in substitution of his or her ordinary duties during normal hours, travel required to respond to an emergency call back to work outside their normal work hours, and travel required to respond to an employer’s special request to perform a particular and unusual assignment. IL Admin. Code 210.110
Meeting, lecture, and training time
Illinois minimum wage laws do not address when an employer must count meeting, lecture, or training time as hours worked for purposes of minimum wage and overtime requirements. Because most employees working in Illinois are subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the rules and regulations regarding meeting time set forth in that law provide reasonable guidance.
Show up or reporting time
Illinois law does not require employers to pay employees for reporting or showing up to work if no work is performed. An employer is also not required to pay an employee a minimum number of hours if the employer dismisses the employee from work prior to completing their scheduled shift. Employers are only required to pay employees for hours actually worked.
