Employers in Illinois are required to pay employees for all the time they spend working. This includes paying employees for overtime if they work more than 40 hours in a workweek. The legal term used to describe the time employers must count towards employees pay is hours worked. Moreover, employers must keep track of the hours worked by full-time employees, part-time employees, permanent employees, and temporary employees.
Although it usually easy for an employer to determine when employees are working, there are instances when it is not that clear. These more confusing situations include on-call time, travel time, waiting time, and sleeping time. Fortunately, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the US Department of Labor (DOL), and Illinois state laws and regulations have given employers and employees guidance for determining when employees’ time should be paid or not.
Exempt employees versus non-exempt employees
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state labor laws provide different overtime rules for employees depending on the type of work they perform. Most employees are considered non-exempt employees. This means that employers must track the time non-exempt employees work and pay the non-exempt employee at least minimum wage for all the time worked. Moreover, if the non-exempt employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, employers must pay the non-exempt employees at least one and one-half times their regular rate for all the time beyond 40 hours.
As opposed to non-exempt employees, employers are not required to track the time worked by bona fide exempt employees or pay them overtime pay. Exempt employees include, among others, executive employees, administrative employees, professional employees, outside salespersons, and computer experts. Find out more information about employees in Illinois who are exempt from minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Hours worked
Illinois requires 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
Full-time versus part-time employees
One of the more common questions that people ask is, how many hours is full time in Illinois versus how many hours is part time in Illinois? What this usually means is, how many hours does an employee have to work in a workweek to get overtime? The answer of that question for Illinois employees is 40 hours.
However, whether an employee is entitled to overtime may not be the only instance that an employee may be considered full-time. Instead, whether an employee is full-time versus part-time can be defined by the employer or by federal or Illinois labor laws. And at times, it does not require an employee to work 40 hours to be full-time.
For example, frequently, employers provide employees health or retirement benefits to employees who work less than 40 hours per workweek. These employees may be considered full-time instead of part-time. Employers may also allow employees who work less than 40 hours per week to accrue and use vacation leave, sick leave, holiday leave or other types of paid time off.
Thus, Illinois labor laws do not have set rules that distinguish full-time hours from part-time hours. Instead, whether an employee is full-time depends on each individual employer.
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 as 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 12:00 a.m. and ending the following Saturday at 11:59 p.m.
Waiting time
Illinois labor 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 Illinois are subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the rules and regulations regarding waiting time set forth in that law provide reasonable guidance.
Under the FLSA, employers are typically required to pay employees for waiting if the employee:
- is not engaged in the work for which they were hired;
- remains subject to the direction of his or her employer;
- is not able to effectively use the time for themselves; and
- is unsure as to when the waiting period will occur and/or how long it will last.
If an employee is free to effectively use the waiting time for their own purposes, the employer is not required to pay the employee for waiting time.
On-call time
Many employers require employees to be available to work when called. The time employees wait to be called to work is referred to as on-call time. There is no question whether an employer must pay on-call employees for time they spend once they arrive to their work location. The tougher questions is whether the employer must pay on-call employees for:
- the time the employee waits for a call and/or
- the time the employee spends traveling to the work location after being called by their employer.
The answer to those questions depends on the circumstances.
Are on-call employees entitled to be paid for waiting while on-call?
Under the FLSA and Illinois labor laws, employers are required to pay on-call employers for the time they are waiting for a call if the employee is not permitted to effectively use the waiting time for their own purposes. For example, this means the on-call employee may not be able to go home or spend substantial uninterrupted time hanging out with family or friends. To the contrary, if the employee is able to have extended substantial uninterrupted time while waiting for a call, they are likely not entitled to be paid for that time. IL Admin. Code 210.110
Are on-call employees entitled to be paid for traveling to their workplace after being called?
According to Illinois on-call laws, employers must pay on-call workers for the time they travel to get to their workplace after being called. The reason on-call employees must be paid for traveling is because the travel time is performed for the employer’s benefit. IL Admin. Code 210.110
Sleeping time
Illinois wage and hour 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 Illinois 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 hours worked laws require 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 outside their normal work hours, and
- travel required to respond to an employer’s special request to perform a particular and unusual assignment.
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.
