If your employer owes you wages, commissions, or other earned compensation and has not paid, you have both a breach of contract claim and a potential claim under the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (820 ILCS 115). The IWPCA is one of the strongest employee compensation statutes in the country — it covers all compensation that has been earned and is due, including base salary, commissions, bonuses, and accrued vacation time.

Under the IWPCA, employers must pay final compensation on the next regularly scheduled payday after termination. Failure to pay triggers statutory penalties of 2% per month on the unpaid amount, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. These penalties compound — on a $50,000 unpaid commission, the 2% monthly penalty adds $1,000 per month until payment.

Commission disputes are among the most common breach claims we handle. Employers frequently change commission structures mid-year, apply retroactive caps or clawback provisions, or refuse to pay commissions on deals that were in process when the employee left. If your commission plan is part of your employment agreement (or a separate written plan), your employer cannot unilaterally reduce or eliminate commissions you have already earned.

We also handle wage theft claims — overtime not paid, hours not recorded, deductions not authorized — under both the IWPCA and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (820 ILCS 105). Illinois minimum wage is $15/hour as of January 1, 2025, and Chicago’s minimum wage is higher depending on employer size.

Bonus disputes turn on whether the bonus is discretionary or earned. A truly discretionary bonus — one the employer has full authority to grant or withhold — is generally not a contractual obligation. But many bonuses that employers call discretionary are actually earned compensation because the plan sets specific performance targets, revenue thresholds, or other objective criteria. Once you meet those criteria, the bonus is earned and owed to you regardless of what the plan document labels it.

We analyze your bonus or incentive plan to determine whether the bonus has been earned under the plan’s own terms, whether the employer’s discretion is actually limited by the plan language, whether “active employment” requirements at the time of payout are enforceable (Illinois courts have scrutinized these provisions), and whether forfeiture provisions comply with the IWPCA.

Signing bonuses, retention bonuses, and clawback provisions require separate analysis. If your employer is demanding repayment of a signing bonus, the enforceability of the clawback depends on the specific language of the agreement and whether the conditions for repayment were clearly stated and reasonably applied.

Illinois is an at-will employment state, which means your employer can generally terminate you for any reason or no reason. But at-will employment has significant exceptions. If you have a written employment contract that specifies a term of employment (e.g., a two-year agreement), requires cause for termination, or guarantees certain procedures before termination, your employer must comply with those terms. Terminating you in violation of the contract is a breach entitling you to damages — typically the remaining compensation you would have earned under the agreement.

Beyond written contracts, at-will employment can be modified by employee handbooks and policies that create implied contracts — particularly progressive discipline policies, for-cause termination procedures, or probationary period provisions. If your employer established a policy requiring specific steps before termination and did not follow those steps, you may have a breach of implied contract claim.

Wrongful termination can also overlap with discrimination, retaliation, and public policy violations (firing you for filing a workers’ comp claim, refusing to commit an illegal act, or exercising a legal right). We evaluate all potential theories to build the strongest case.

Equity compensation disputes are increasingly common, particularly in startups and growth-stage companies. Common issues include unvested equity forfeited upon termination (was the termination designed to prevent vesting?), exercise windows that expire too quickly after departure, valuation disputes in buyback provisions, failure to issue promised equity, and dilution without proper notice or in violation of the equity agreement.

We review equity agreements — including stock option grants, restricted stock units (RSUs), phantom equity plans, and profit interest awards — to determine whether your employer has breached its obligations. Key questions include whether the equity agreement was properly executed, whether vesting conditions were met, whether the employer had the right to repurchase and at what valuation, and whether termination was timed to defeat vesting.

If your employer promised equity as part of your compensation package but never formalized the grant, you may have claims for breach of oral contract, promissory estoppel, or unjust enrichment. We help employees document and pursue these claims.

If your employer promised specific benefits — health insurance, disability coverage, retirement contributions, life insurance — as part of your employment agreement and failed to provide them, that is a breach of contract. It may also trigger claims under ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act), which governs most employer-sponsored benefit plans and provides federal court jurisdiction, attorney’s fees, and specific enforcement remedies.

Common benefit breaches include failure to enroll you in health insurance as promised, failure to make retirement plan contributions (employer match not deposited), denial of disability or life insurance claims that should have been covered, COBRA notice failures (your employer is required to provide timely COBRA election notice after qualifying events), and benefit plan changes made without required notice.

ERISA claims have specific procedural requirements — including administrative exhaustion (you must typically appeal within the plan before filing suit) and strict statutes of limitations. We ensure these requirements are met so your claim is not dismissed on procedural grounds.

Your employer hired you with specific terms — compensation, title, responsibilities, reporting structure, territory, or commission plan. If they unilaterally changed those terms without your agreement, it may be a breach of contract. Common changes that create breach claims include salary reductions without consent, commission plan changes applied retroactively or mid-period, territory reductions that affect earning potential, job responsibility changes that effectively demote you, and elimination of agreed-upon benefits.

Under Illinois law, an employer cannot reduce wages or salary retroactively — the IWPCA prohibits changes to compensation terms for work already performed. Prospective changes to at-will employees are generally permissible, but if you have a written agreement specifying compensation for a defined term, the employer must honor it for the duration or risk a breach claim.

In some cases, unilateral changes are so significant that they constitute constructive discharge — making your working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person would resign. Constructive discharge can trigger breach of contract claims, severance obligations, and potentially discrimination or retaliation claims if the changes were motivated by discriminatory or retaliatory intent.

If you work as an independent contractor and your client has failed to pay invoices, changed the terms of your engagement, or terminated your agreement without following the contract terms, you have a breach of contract claim. Independent contractor agreements are governed by general Illinois contract law, and damages include unpaid fees plus interest.

We also handle misclassification claims — situations where your employer classifies you as an independent contractor when you are actually an employee under Illinois law. The Illinois Employee Classification Act (820 ILCS 185) imposes penalties on employers who misclassify employees in the construction industry, and the IRS economic reality test and Illinois common-law control test determine classification in other industries. Misclassification can entitle you to unpaid overtime, benefits, employer tax contributions, workers’ compensation coverage, and IWPCA protections you were denied.

If you have been working as a “1099 contractor” but your employer controls when, where, and how you work, provides your tools and equipment, and restricts your ability to work for others, you may be misclassified — and entitled to significantly more than your contract provides.

If you entered a business partnership or were promised an ownership stake, profit sharing, or revenue participation as part of your employment, and those commitments have not been honored, you have a breach of contract claim. These disputes often involve operating agreements, partnership agreements, buy-sell agreements, and profit-sharing plans with complex provisions governing distributions, buyouts, and valuation.

Common issues include failure to distribute agreed-upon profits, forced buyouts at below-market valuation, exclusion from management decisions in violation of the operating agreement, and self-dealing by majority owners that reduces your share value. These claims may involve both breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty — partners and co-owners owe each other fiduciary obligations under Illinois law.

We also handle disputes involving deferred compensation arrangements, phantom equity plans, and earnout provisions tied to acquisition events — all of which are contractual obligations that employers frequently attempt to restructure or eliminate before payout.