Employee Expense Reimbursement Requirements in Illinois

At a glance

Requirements one by one

The expense must meet several connected tests

Section 9.5 requires reimbursement only when the expenditure or loss is within the employee's work scope and directly related to services for the employer. It defines a necessary expenditure as reasonable, required in discharging job duties, and primarily benefiting the employer.

The employer must also have authorized or required the cost, unless the employer itself failed to follow its written reimbursement policy. A cost the employee chose independently does not satisfy that statutory condition merely because it was useful at work.

Employee fault and specified losses remain excluded

Section 9.5 excludes losses caused by the employee's negligence and normal wear. Theft losses are also excluded unless the theft resulted from the employer's negligence.

The section does not add a separate list for commuting, personal costs, or expenses normally borne as a condition of employment. Those questions must be resolved through the statute's necessity, work-scope, authorization, and primary-benefit tests.

The request generally is due within 30 days

The employee must submit appropriate supporting documentation within 30 calendar days after incurring the expense. A written policy may give more time. When the documentation does not exist or is missing or lost, the employee must submit a signed statement about the receipts.

The statute states no fixed number of days for the employer to pay an approved claim and no required payroll, separate-payment, advance, stipend, or interest method.

A written policy may set real limits, but not eliminate payment

An employee may lose reimbursement by failing to comply with an established written expense policy. The policy may set specifications or guidelines, and the employer need not pay the portion above them.

That authority has an express boundary: the employer may not institute a policy providing no reimbursement or only de minimis reimbursement.

The Act supplies agency and court routes

Section 11 permits an IDOL complaint and requires the complaint within one year after the covered amount was due. It also lets an aggrieved employee sue in Illinois circuit court without first exhausting the administrative process. Code of Civil Procedure § 13-206 gives an action under the Wage Payment and Collection Act a 10-year period.

Sections 9.5 and 11 do not state a reimbursement-specific damage multiplier, attorney-fee award, interest rule, or payment deadline. Those provisions should not be inferred from rules written for a different kind of underpayment.

What trips people up

The 30-day rule applies to the employee's submission, not the employer's payment. Section 9.5 supplies no matching employer-payment clock.

A policy cap is not automatically valid merely because it is written. The statute protects specifications and guidelines only while forbidding a policy that reduces reimbursement to zero or a de minimis amount.

Common questions

Is every expense that helps the employer reimbursable?

No. The expense also must be reasonable, required in discharging duties, within the employment scope, directly related to services, and authorized or required by the employer.

What if a receipt is lost?

Section 9.5 requires a signed statement regarding receipts when supporting documentation is nonexistent, missing, or lost.

May the employer require preapproval?

A written policy may set specifications or guidelines and require compliance. It cannot use those terms to provide no reimbursement or only de minimis reimbursement.

Statutes and sources

• 820 ILCS 115/1. Coverage, including local governments and school districts, with State and federal employees excluded. Official text (accessed July 14, 2026).
• 820 ILCS 115/9.5. Reimbursement standard, exclusions, 30-day request, documentation substitute, authorization, and policy limits. Official text (accessed July 14, 2026).
• 820 ILCS 115/11. IDOL complaint and circuit-court routes. Official text (accessed July 14, 2026).
• 735 ILCS 5/13-206. Ten-year limit for a civil action under the Wage Payment and Collection Act. Official text (accessed July 14, 2026).