Illinois Paystub Generator

Flat State Income Tax

Illinois charges a single flat income tax rate. For 2026 that rate is 4.95% on taxable income, with a personal exemption allowance of $2,925 per person. The flat rate is written into the Illinois Constitution, so it applies the same way whether you earn $30,000 or $300,000. A 2020 ballot measure to switch to a graduated rate failed, and no rate change is scheduled for 2026.

The biggest thing to know about Illinois is what is not on your stub. There is no state disability insurance (SDI) deduction, no paid family leave payroll tax, and no employee-paid unemployment tax. State unemployment insurance (SUI) is paid entirely by the employer, on the first $14,250 of wages in 2026. On the state side, the only mandatory withholding line is the 4.95% income tax.

No Local Income Taxes

This is where Illinois differs sharply from neighbors like Indiana, which adds county income taxes, or states like Ohio and Kentucky with city and school-district taxes. No municipality in Illinois levies a local income tax, including Chicago. If you see a "Chicago tax" line on a stub, it is wrong. Chicago regulates wages and paid leave, not income tax withholding.

Illinois Secure Choice (Now My Illinois Savings)

If your employer does not offer a 401(k) or similar plan, you may see a retirement deduction tied to the state program. Illinois requires employers with five or more employees, in business at least two years, to either offer a qualified plan or enroll workers in the state-facilitated Roth IRA. The default deduction is 5% of pay, taken after tax, and it auto-escalates 1% per year up to 10% unless you change or opt out within 30 days.

In June 2026 this program is rebranding from Illinois Secure Choice to My Illinois Savings, with Vestwell taking over as program manager. The deduction itself does not change. It still appears as an after-tax retirement line on your stub, separate from any pre-tax 401(k) figure.

Mandatory Pay Stub Law (2025)

As of January 1, 2025, Illinois law requires employers to give every employee a pay stub for each pay period. This came from an amendment to the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (820 ILCS 115). Before this change, Illinois had no standalone stub-content statute, so the rules below are recent and strictly enforced.

Most Illinois employees must be paid at least semi-monthly (twice a month). Executive, administrative, and professional staff can be paid monthly, and commissions can be paid monthly. Stubs can be delivered on paper or electronically, and the law does not require the employee to consent to electronic delivery.

Required Information on the Stub

Under the 2025 rules, each Illinois pay stub must itemize:

• Hours worked — Total hours in the pay period
• Rate of pay — The employee's regular hourly or salary rate
• Overtime hours and pay — OT hours separately, plus OT earnings
• Gross wages earned — Total before deductions
• Deductions — Each deduction taken from wages
• Year-to-date totals — Cumulative wages and deductions for the year

The year-to-date column matters most at tax time, because those running totals should line up with your W-2. When you create a pay stub for an Illinois worker, the YTD wage and deduction fields are part of what makes it compliant rather than just a printout.

Record Retention and Copy Requests

Employers must keep a copy of each pay stub for at least three years from the pay date, even if the worker has already left. Current and former employees can request copies, and the employer has 21 calendar days to provide them. Requests are limited to twice in a 12-month period, and former employees can request up to one year after separation.

There is a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation for failing to follow these rules. If an employer only provides stubs electronically and a departing worker would lose access within a year, the employer must offer the prior year of stubs by the final pay period and document the response.

Tipped Workers and the Chicago Wage Rules

Illinois allows a tip credit, but it is capped. The statewide tipped minimum is $9.00 per hour (60% of the $15.00 minimum), and tips plus base pay must reach the full $15.00 each workweek or the employer covers the gap. Chicago runs its own higher rates and its own tip rules, so a server in Chicago and a server in Springfield are on different numbers.

Chicago had been phasing out its tip credit under the One Fair Wage ordinance, but the City Council voted in 2026 to pause that phaseout. The tipped wage holds at $12.96 after July 1, 2026, rather than continuing to climb. Note that over 80% of Cook County municipalities have opted out of the county wage ordinance, so suburban rates vary by town.

Public-Sector and Pension Deductions

Illinois public employees see pension contributions on their stubs that private workers do not. Teachers outside Chicago contribute to TRS (9.0%), Chicago teachers to CTPF, university staff to SURS (8.0%), local government workers to IMRF (4.5%), and state employees to SERS. These contributions are generally pre-tax for Illinois purposes, which lowers the state wages reported in W-2 Box 16. Many Illinois public workers do not pay into Social Security, so their FICA lines look different from a private-sector stub.

Illinois renters feel this most in Chicago, where landlords and management companies routinely ask for recent stubs and often want gross monthly income at two to three times the rent. The same goes for apartment hunting in higher-cost suburbs like Naperville, Evanston, and Schaumburg. A clean stub with correct YTD totals is usually the fastest way to clear an application.

Stubs also come up for Illinois state programs and verification. Applications for SNAP and Medicaid through the Illinois Department of Human Services ask for recent pay records, and the state's ABE/manage-my-case system uploads them directly. Self-employed Illinois workers and rideshare drivers around Chicago and the Metro East often need self-generated stubs to document income for auto loans, mortgages, and leases. If you need proof of income, you can generate a pay stub with accurate Illinois withholding in a few minutes.

Your paychecks all year add up to your W-2. The year-to-date gross wages, the Illinois tax withheld, and your deductions on your final December stub should match the totals your employer reports in January. If they do not match, the stub is your evidence to get it fixed.

Because Illinois has a flat tax and no local income tax, the state section of an Illinois W-2 is short:

• Box 15: "IL" plus the employer's Illinois withholding account number.
• Box 16: Illinois state wages. These can differ from federal Box 1 if you have pre-tax items the state treats differently, including public pension contributions.
• Box 17: Illinois income tax withheld, reflecting the flat 4.95% rate applied across the year.
• Boxes 18–20 (local): Usually blank for Illinois workers, because no Illinois city or county imposes an income tax. If these boxes show amounts, that almost always points to a different state.
• Box 14: Sometimes used to report pension contributions (TRS, SURS, IMRF, and similar) for public employees.

Reciprocal State Agreements

Illinois has a reciprocal agreement with Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wisconsin, so residents of those states who work in Illinois can have their home-state tax withheld instead of Illinois tax, and vice versa, by filing the right exemption form. An Illinois resident working in a non-reciprocal state may see two states in Box 15 and can claim a credit to avoid double taxation.

Generate Your Illinois W-2 Form

Need to produce year-end forms too? Our Illinois W-2 Generator fills the state boxes with the flat-rate withholding and leaves the local boxes correctly empty, so the form matches the stubs you issued during the year.