Illinois SUTA Tax Calculator
Figure basis: Official U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment InsuranceState Unemployment Tax Act (SUTA) tax is the state unemployment insurance tax that employers pay to fund unemployment benefits in Illinois. This calculator estimates your Illinois SUTA liability for the 2026 tax year. Enter the average annual wages per employee, your number of employees, and your assigned SUTA rate to see the taxable wages, tax per employee, and total tax. SUTA is charged only on the first $14,250 of each employee's wages (the 2026 Illinois taxable wage base); wages above that per employee are not taxed. Your rate is set by the state based on your business's unemployment claim history (your "experience rating"); a new employer pays 3.35%. SUTA is separate from the federal FUTA tax and, in most states, is paid entirely by the employer and never deducted from employee wages. All wage-base and rate figures are sourced from U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance and verified for 2026. Replace the default rate with the rate on your state tax-rate notice for an exact figure.
In Illinois, employers pay SUTA on the first $14,250 of each employee's wages for 2026, and a new employer pays 3.35%. For 5 employees earning $50,000 each at 3.35%, the estimated annual SUTA tax is $2,386.88 ($477.38 per employee).
How Illinois SUTA tax works
Illinois charges state unemployment tax on each employee's wages up to the taxable wage base of $14,250 for 2026. Once an employee has earned that much in the year, no further SUTA is due on that employee. Your rate is assigned by the state from your experience rating; a new employer pays 3.35%.
taxable wages per employee = min(annual wages, $14,250)
SUTA tax per employee = taxable wages per employee x rate / 100
total SUTA tax = SUTA tax per employee x number of employees
Worked example: 5 employees each earning $50,000 in Illinois at 3.35%. Each employee's taxable wages are capped at $14,250, so the tax per employee is $477.38 and the total is $2,386.88.
Illinois SUTA figures (2026)
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable wage base | $14,250 | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
| New employer rate | 3.35% | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
| Experience rate range | 0.2% to 6.5% | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
The experience-rate range shown is the base statutory range. Most states add mandatory assessments on top (for example a fund-building, solvency, or administrative surcharge), so an employer's effective rate can be higher than the range shown, and the new-employer rate may exclude those add-ons. Your exact assigned rate is on your annual state tax-rate notice.
What a new Illinois employer should expect
Illinois sets its 2026 taxable wage base at $14,250 per employee, a middle-of-the-road figure, so SUTA stops accruing on a worker once that person's wages for the year pass $14,250. A new Illinois employer is assigned a 2.8% rate, capping first-year tax at $399.00 per employee (2.8% of $14,250). Pay above the base is untaxed, so your total depends far more on headcount than on individual salaries.
After the new-employer period, Illinois experience rates run from 0.2% to 6.5%. On the $14,250 base that is roughly $28.50 per employee a year at the floor and $926.25 at the ceiling. Where you land is set by your own record of benefit charges, so a stable workforce with few unemployment claims is rewarded with a materially lower rate.
Keep two points in mind. The 0.2% to 6.5% figures are the base experience range; Illinois adds a fund-building factor in most years, so the combined rate on your annual notice is the number to trust rather than the raw band. And SUTA is paid entirely by the employer and never withheld from employee wages. Enter your assigned rate above in place of the 2.8% default for an exact figure.
Illinois SUTA tax: frequently asked questions
What is the Illinois unemployment (SUTA) taxable wage base for 2026?
For 2026, Illinois employers pay state unemployment tax on the first $14,250 of each employee's wages. Wages above $14,250 per employee are not subject to SUTA.
What is the Illinois new employer SUTA rate?
New employers in Illinois pay a SUTA rate of 3.35% until they have enough history to be experience-rated. On the $14,250 wage base that is up to $477.38 per employee per year.
How is Illinois SUTA tax calculated?
Multiply each employee's wages, capped at the $14,250 taxable wage base, by your assigned experience rate, then add up across employees. SUTA is primarily an employer-paid tax and is not deducted from employee pay.
Is the Illinois SUTA rate the same for every employer?
No. After the new-employer period, Illinois assigns each employer an experience rate based on its history of layoffs and claims, generally ranging from about 0.2% to 6.5% for experience-rated employers before any state add-on surcharges. The rate field above defaults to the new-employer rate; replace it with the rate on your state tax notice for an exact figure.
Official sources
- Illinois unemployment taxable wage base and rates (tax year 2026): U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance, as at Jul 15, 2026.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 15 July 2026. See our methodology. General information, not tax or legal advice.