Primary sources
- 820 ILCS 115/5. Accessed 1 July 2026.
United States · Illinois · Final pay child
Served by Teamed US Inc., Delaware
When is a final paycheck due in Illinois?
Illinois is the state that writes its deadline as an expectation rather than a number. Pay at separation if you can, next payday if you cannot, and be ready to say which applied.
· Illinois, United States guide
Answer · cite this
In Illinois final wages are due at the time of separation if possible, and otherwise on the next regular payday, under 820 ILCS 115/5. The same standard applies to a discharge and a resignation.
That wording is doing real work. It is not a choice between two equally acceptable options: the next regular payday is the fallback, and relying on it invites the question of why same-day payment was not possible.
Illinois is unusual in applying the identical standard to a discharge and a resignation, so the burden of explaining a delay does not shift depending on who ended the job.
When must a final paycheck be paid after firing someone in Illinois?
At the time of separation if possible, and otherwise on the next regular payday, under 820 ILCS 115/5.
The phrase "if possible" is the part to plan around. An employer that can produce a final payment on the day and chooses not to has not obviously met the standard, and the Illinois Department of Labor reads the fallback as a fallback rather than an alternative.
In practice that argues for knowing, before a planned termination, whether you can pay that day. A documented reason why you could not is worth more than an assumption that next payday was always acceptable.
The duty to pay is separate from whether the termination itself was lawful. That is covered on the Illinois termination and at-will page.
Is it different if the employee resigns?
No. 820 ILCS 115/5 applies the same at-separation-if-possible standard to a resignation.
A resignation is often less predictable than a discharge, so "possible" will more frequently mean the next payday. That is a reasonable outcome, but it is reached by the same test rather than by a different rule.
The consistency is useful: one standard to train to, across both kinds of exit.
How does Illinois compare with the states around it?
Illinois frames the obligation differently from the states around it, most of which give you a date or a count of days.
| State | If fired | If employee quits | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | At time of separation if possible, otherwise next regular payday | At time of separation if possible, otherwise next regular payday | 820 ILCS 115/5 |
| Wisconsin | Next regular payday under the employer's established pay schedule | Next regular payday under the employer's established pay schedule | Wis. Stat. 109.03 |
| Indiana | Next regular payday | Next regular payday | Ind. Code 22-2-9-2 |
| Missouri | Immediately on the day of discharge | Next regular payday | Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110 |
| Ohio | Next regular payday or within 15 days, whichever is earlier | Next regular payday or within 15 days, whichever is earlier | Ohio Rev. Code 4113.15 |
The full 50-state picture is on the final paycheck laws by state table.
Illinois final pay, in short
- Deadline if fired
- At time of separation if possible, otherwise next regular payday
- Deadline if the employee quits
- At time of separation if possible, otherwise next regular payday
- Governing statute
- 820 ILCS 115/5
- Source
- Primary source
- Last verified
How much of this do you still handle if you hire in Illinois through an EOR?
None of it. The judgement about what was possible, the payment and the record behind it sit with the employer of record.
What costs more than the timing is everything around it:
- onboarding and offboarding fees
- termination charges
- contracts that lock you in
- FX markups on every pay run
- a platform built for a company ten times your size
- a ticket queue where you never learn who to contact
The industry profits from keeping that hidden. Teamed calls it the Hidden Global Employment Tax, and Teamed's whole model exists to remove it.
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Questions people ask about Illinois final pay
When is a final paycheck due in Illinois if someone is fired?
At the time of separation if possible, and otherwise on the next regular payday, under 820 ILCS 115/5.
When is it due if the employee quits?
No. 820 ILCS 115/5 applies the same at-separation-if-possible standard to a resignation.
What does "if possible" mean in the Illinois final pay rule?
It makes same-day payment the expectation and the next regular payday the fallback. 820 ILCS 115/5 does not treat the two as equivalent options, so an employer that could have paid at separation and did not should be able to explain why. The same standard applies whether the employee was fired or resigned.
A note from Tom Price-Daniel
Illinois asks a question most states do not: could you have paid today?
If the answer is yes and you waited for payday, you are explaining yourself.
Decide the answer before the termination, not after the complaint.
Tom Price-Daniel · Co-founder, Teamed
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