How to file a wage claim in Illinois.
Filed with the Illinois Department of Labor. Form: Wage Claim Application. Statute of limitations: 1 year IDOL administrative; 10 years private suit (IWPCA).
Calculate your specific deadline
Enter the date wages were due → get the deadline for Illinois, federal FLSA, EEOC charge, and NLRB ULP.
Open SOL calculatorWhat this form covers
Illinois Wage Payment & Collection Act gives one of the strongest private rights of action — file in state court for full IWPCA remedies.
Where the form is filed
The Wage Claim Application is the canonical wage-claim form for Illinois. SynthCounsel hosts the official .gov source PDF and re-verifies it nightly.
Federal options run in parallel
State wage claims don’t replace federal claims. The FLSA SOL (2 years; 3 if willful) runs separately from Illinois’s SOL, and you may file with the US DOL Wage & Hour Division for federal minimum-wage and overtime violations. For discrimination claims, the EEOC charge clock starts at 180 days (300 days in deferral states like CA, NY, IL, etc.).
- · FLSA wage claim: DOL WH-31 (dol.gov)
- · EEOC discrimination charge: SynthCounsel wizard + eeoc.gov
- · NLRB unfair labor practice: NLRB-501 (nlrb.gov)
- · OSHA workplace hazard: OSHA-7 (osha.gov)
Wage claim guides for nearby states
Wage claim time limits
All four parallel deadlines (state, FLSA, EEOC, NLRB) from one date.
EEOC charge wizard
Build a Form 5 narrative if your wage claim involves discrimination.