Illinois Independent Contractor Agreement
Illinois has no single test for contractor status. The Wage Payment and Collection Act and the Unemployment Insurance Act each treat a worker as an employee unless a three-part test is met, and construction has its own statute. Since July 1, 2024, the Freelance Worker Protection Act also requires a written contract and payment within 30 days for most individual freelancers.
What Illinois law does to this document
The wage-payment test
Under the Wage Payment and Collection Act, an individual is an employee unless three things are true. The individual is free from control and direction both under the contract and in fact. The work is outside the usual course of the business or performed outside all of its places of business. The individual is in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.
820 ILCS 115/2The unemployment insurance test
The Unemployment Insurance Act uses a similar three-part test and puts the burden on the business. Service is deemed employment unless and until it is proven that the worker is free from control, that the service is outside the usual course or places of the business, and that the worker has an independently established trade. Failing any one part makes the relationship employment for unemployment insurance purposes.
820 ILCS 405/212Construction has a separate statute
Under the Employee Classification Act, an individual performing services for a construction contractor is deemed an employee unless a three-part test is met. A sole proprietor or partnership can instead qualify as legitimate by meeting all 12 statutory criteria, which include a substantial capital investment beyond ordinary tools and the right to perform similar services for others.
820 ILCS 185/10Freelancers must get a written contract
The Freelance Worker Protection Act applies when a natural person is retained as an independent contractor for $500 or more, counted alone or together with other contracts with the same business in the prior 120 days. The contract must be in writing and a copy must be furnished to the freelancer. It must state both parties' names and contact information, including the hiring party's mailing address, itemize the services with their value and the rate and method of pay, and set the payment date. The hiring party must keep the contract for at least 2 years.
820 ILCS 193/5 and 193/15Thirty days to pay, double damages if late
A freelancer must be paid by the date in the contract, and that date can be no later than 30 days after the products or services are provided. Once work has started, the hiring party may not make timely payment depend on the freelancer accepting less than the contracted amount. A freelancer who is not paid on time can recover double the unpaid amount plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
820 ILCS 193/10, 193/15(b)(3) and 193/30Where people go wrong in Illinois
- Relying on the title of the agreement, when the wage and unemployment tests ask whether the worker is free from control both under the contract and in fact.
- Accepting the generator's payment clause as drafted for an individual freelancer, because it counts a number of days you choose from receipt of an invoice and does not apply the Illinois rule that the payment date can be no later than 30 days after the products or services are provided.
- Leaving out the hiring party's mailing address or an itemization of the services and their value, both of which the Freelance Worker Protection Act requires in the written contract.
How the generator works
A work-for-hire consulting agreement that assigns IP, sets payment and SOW terms, and is drafted to support genuine contractor classification under the ABC test. Answer a short interview and the draft assembles as you go, with Illinois already set as the governing state. Download it as PDF or Word. No fee. No account.