Illinois One Day Rest in Seven Act: Rules, Exemptions, and Penalties

The Illinois One Day Rest in Seven Act (ODRISA) requires every covered employer to give employees at least 24 consecutive hours off in each rolling seven-day period and a meal break of at least 20 minutes on any shift of 7.5 hours or more.¹ Amendments effective January 1, 2023 tightened both rules and added stronger meal-break protections for longer shifts. If you work in Illinois and don’t fall into one of the statutory exemptions, these rules apply to you.

The 24-Hour Rest Requirement

Every employer must allow each covered employee at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every consecutive seven-day period, on top of the normal break between daily shifts.¹ Before 2023, the law measured the rest period against a fixed Sunday-to-Saturday calendar week. The current version uses a rolling seven-day window, so an employer can no longer place a day off at the end of one calendar week and the start of the next while scheduling someone to work 12 or 13 days back-to-back in between.²

The 24 hours must be genuinely consecutive. Splitting the rest into smaller blocks across different days doesn’t satisfy the statute. If you’re scheduled seven straight days without a full 24-hour gap, that’s a violation unless you fall into one of the exempt categories below.

Meal Breaks on Shifts of 7.5 Hours or More

Section 3 requires at least a 20-minute meal period for any employee who works 7.5 continuous hours or more, and that break must begin no later than 5 hours after the shift starts.³ The break is meant to be a real one, with the employee relieved of duties. Time spent working through a “meal period” must be paid.

Longer shifts trigger additional breaks. Any employee who works beyond 7.5 continuous hours earns another 20-minute meal period for every additional 4.5 continuous hours worked.³ A 12-hour shift picks up a second meal break, a 16.5-hour shift picks up a third. Restroom breaks don’t count toward meal period time.

Two groups have modified rather than eliminated meal rules. Employees who monitor individuals with developmental disabilities or mental illness and must remain on call during an 8-hour shift aren’t entitled to an uninterrupted meal period, but must be allowed to eat during the shift while continuing to monitor. The same rule applies to private-company EMS workers licensed under the Emergency Medical Services Systems Act who are on call for an 8-hour period and are not local government employees.³ Meal breaks addressed in a collective bargaining agreement are governed by that agreement.

Employer Posting and Scheduling Duties

Before operating on a Sunday, every employer must post a schedule in a visible location listing which employees are working that day and identifying the designated rest day for each person.⁴ The schedule must be conspicuously posted where employees can actually see it, and no employee can be required to work on their designated rest day.

That posted schedule is what locks in your day off. Once your employer designates a rest day for you, they can’t demand you come in that day. If operations shift, the employer needs to update the schedule and designate a different rest day, not eliminate the rest day altogether.

Extra Protections for Domestic Workers

Domestic workers get the same 24-hour rest guarantee, with two additions. A domestic worker can agree to work on a rest day, but only voluntarily, and the employer must pay overtime rates for every hour worked that day.¹ Pressure or threats to waive the rest day don’t meet the “voluntary” standard. Whenever possible, the rest day should coincide with the day the worker traditionally reserves for religious worship.

Who Is Exempt

ODRISA’s rest day requirement carves out eight categories of workers under Section 2(b):¹

Part-time employees whose total hours for a single employer don’t exceed 20 in a calendar week.
Emergency workers needed during a breakdown of machinery, equipment failure, or similar emergency requiring immediate skilled labor to prevent injury, property damage, or a shutdown of necessary operations.
Agricultural and coal mining workers, who fall under separate regulatory frameworks.
Seasonal canning and processing workers engaged in canning or processing perishable agricultural products for no more than 20 weeks per year.
Watchmen and security guards.
Executive, administrative, and professional employees as defined by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, along with outside salespersons and supervisors as defined by the National Labor Relations Act.
Crew members on uninspected towing vessels operating in Illinois navigable waters.
Employees whose hours, work days, and rest periods are governed by a collective bargaining agreement.

The emergency exemption is narrower than employers often assume. It covers genuine breakdowns and immediate hazards, not predictable busy seasons or chronic understaffing. Routine use of the emergency exemption to skip rest days is almost certainly a violation.

Penalties and What an Employee Can Recover

Violations carry civil penalties that scale with company size, and the penalty has two parts: a fine payable to the Illinois Department of Labor and separate damages payable directly to the affected employee.⁵

Employers with fewer than 25 employees: up to $250 per offense to the Department of Labor, plus up to $250 per offense in damages to the affected employee.
Employers with 25 or more employees: up to $500 per offense to the Department of Labor, plus up to $500 per offense in damages to the affected employee.

Each employee denied a rest day or meal break is a separate offense. An employer who skips meal breaks for a crew of 10 on the same shift faces 10 individual violations, not one, which for a larger employer can mean up to $10,000 in combined penalties and damages from a single shift. The damages-to-the-employee piece is easy to overlook: workers themselves are entitled to money, not just the state.

These penalties are civil, not criminal. The Director of Labor enforces the Act and may adopt rules for its administration.⁶ There is no private right of action under ODRISA. You cannot sue your employer directly in court for a violation; enforcement runs through the Department of Labor.

How to File an ODRISA Complaint

If your employer denies you a rest day or meal break, file a complaint using the Illinois Department of Labor’s ODRISA complaint form on the department’s website.⁷ The form asks for your employer’s information, your employment details, and a description of the violation. Three categories are available: being denied a meal break, being required to work seven consecutive days, and being fired or punished for trying to exercise your rights under the Act.

That last category is worth knowing about. The Department treats it as a violation when an employer fires or disciplines a worker for requesting a meal break or refusing to work on a rest day. You can upload supporting documents such as company policies, text messages, emails, and schedules. The Department doesn’t publish a specific filing deadline, so submit as soon as you can while records and memories are fresh.

1
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 140/2 – Hours and Days of Rest in Every Consecutive Seven-Day Period
2
Illinois Department of Labor. ODRISA Amendment Updates Effective January 1, 2023
3
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 140/3 – Meal Periods
4
FindLaw. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 140/4
5
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 140 – One Day Rest In Seven Act
6
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 140/6
7
Illinois Department of Labor. ODRISA Complaint Form