Midwest · Restaurants
Restaurants scheduling laws in Illinois.
Illinois pairs Chicago's Fair Workweek Ordinance with statewide rules: One Day Rest in Seven Act and the new Paid Leave for All Workers Act (2024). Predictive scheduling is the centerpiece for Chicago employers in covered industries.
Last updated 2026-05. Statute citations linked inline. Not legal advice — consult counsel for compliance audits.
Rules that affect your schedule
4 Illinois rules to know.
Each rule includes the statute reference and how Weekwright helps you stay compliant. We focus on rules that affect the schedule itself — not every wage-and-hour topic.
Chicago Fair Workweek — 10/14-day advance notice
Chicago Mun. Code §1-25Covered employers (100+ employees globally, 50+ in Chicago) in retail, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, and others must post schedules 10 days in advance (rising to 14 days). Industries vary slightly in coverage thresholds.
How Weekwright helps
Publish-week locks the schedule with a timestamp; the audit log captures every post-publish change for predictability-pay calculation.
Predictability pay (Chicago)
Chicago Mun. Code §1-25-050Schedule changes inside the notice window trigger predictability pay — 1 hour additional wages per added shift or extended shift; up to 50% of cancelled shift wages for short-notice cancellations.
How Weekwright helps
Every shift mutation is audit-logged with before/after state. Compute predictability-pay liability deterministically, not from manager recollection.
Statewide One Day Rest in Seven Act
820 ILCS 140/2All employees in Illinois must receive at least 24 consecutive hours off in every calendar week. Limited industry exemptions.
How Weekwright helps
MAX_CONSECUTIVE_DAYS preset to 6 BLOCKING enforces this. The conflict detector refuses to publish a 7-day streak in the same calendar week.
Paid Leave for All Workers Act
820 ILCS 192Effective January 2024 — all Illinois employees accrue at least 40 hours of paid leave per year, usable for any reason. 1 hour earned per 40 worked.
How Weekwright helps
Time-off requests cover both sick and personal leave types; the conflict detector blocks shifts on approved leave days regardless of the reason.
Official sources
Citations link to the primary statute, ordinance, or agency page so you can verify against the original. This is research guidance, not legal advice — consult counsel for compliance audits.
Pricing
Per seat. Predictable across states.
Compliance rules apply per location, so a chain operating in Illinois and elsewhere runs each rule set independently.
Starter
For your first scheduled week.
$0/mo, billed annuallyStart free- Up to 10 active employees
- Unlimited weekly schedules
- Time-off, swaps, templates
- Email support
- Most popular
Pro
For teams that schedule weekly.
$3.5/mo, billed annually · per seatStart free- Unlimited employees
- Multi-location dashboards
- Compliance rules engine
- Audit log + insights
- Open shifts + advanced swaps
AI
Pro plus the scheduling agent.
$6/mo, billed annually · per seatStart free- Everything in Pro
- AI weekly drafts + gap fill
- Conversational scheduling chat
- AI insights + weekly review
- Per-shift assignment explanations
Business
For multi-location operators.
$10/mo, billed annually · per seatTalk to us- Everything in AI
- + $99/mo platform fee
- SSO (Google Workspace)
- Audit retention 7 years
- Jurisdiction compliance baseline
- Priority support
Common questions
Illinois restaurants FAQ.
What scheduling laws does Illinois have for restaurants?
Illinois pairs Chicago's Fair Workweek Ordinance with statewide rules: One Day Rest in Seven Act and the new Paid Leave for All Workers Act (2024). Predictive scheduling is the centerpiece for Chicago employers in covered industries. The most relevant rules for restaurants are: Chicago Fair Workweek — 10/14-day advance notice, Predictability pay (Chicago), Statewide One Day Rest in Seven Act.
How does Weekwright help comply with Illinois scheduling laws?
Weekwright ships with a configurable compliance rules engine. Illinois-relevant rules (rest periods, consecutive-day limits, daily overtime caps) are checked at every shift create, move, and publish. The audit log captures every change for predictability-pay calculations and labor-board responses.
Does Weekwright automatically update when Illinois labor laws change?
We track changes to the major scheduling-related laws (predictive scheduling ordinances, sick leave, daily overtime). Compliance rule defaults can be updated org-wide; we don't push silent changes — labor law is sensitive enough that we surface the diff first.
What about restaurants businesses outside Illinois?
Weekwright is multi-jurisdiction friendly. Each location pins its IANA timezone and its own set of compliance rules — a chain operating in Illinois and another state runs both rule sets independently, on the same dashboard.
Schedule restaurants compliantly in Illinois.
Free for up to 10 employees. No credit card required.