New laws for Illinois employers to know in 2025 and beyond

24 October 2024 11 min read

By Cassie Boyle

At a glance

Employers in Illinois are facing new legal requirements related to a host of issues, including pay transparency, discrimination and harassment, mandatory notices and job postings, leave, child labor, recordkeeping and artificial intelligence.
Many of these changes are effective as of January 1, 2025, however, some are expected in 2026, and some came into effect in 2024.

Employers in Illinois are facing new legal requirements related to a host of issues, including pay transparency, discrimination and harassment, mandatory notices and job postings, leave, child labor, recordkeeping and artificial intelligence. Below we summarize new laws that will take effect in 2025 and beyond.

Pay transparency

Effective January 1, 2025, amendments to the Illinois Equal Pay Act require Illinois employers with 15 or more employees to disclose the pay scales and benefits in all job postings. Pay scale and benefits includes the wage or salary (or the wage or salary range), as well as a description of benefits and other compensation, such as bonuses, stock options, or other incentives, that the employer expects to offer for the position. The employer must include the 'good faith' range it reasonably expects to offer set by reference to existing pay ranges, the budgeted amount for the role, or the actual range paid to others in equivalent positions. Employers can comply with disclosure requirements by providing a link to a public section of the employer’s website.

If an employer engages a third party to post job opportunities, the employer must provide pay and benefits information to the third party.

The requirements apply to jobs that will be performed, at least in part, in Illinois, as well as jobs outside of Illinois if the hired employee will report to a supervisor, office or other work site in Illinois.

In addition, employers are required to announce, post, or otherwise make known all promotion opportunities to current employees within 14 business days of posting the job externally.

The law does not require employers to make a job posting and does not prohibit an employer or employment agency from asking an applicant about their wage or salary expectations for the position.

Amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act

Family Responsibilities: Effective January 1, 2025, House Bill (HB) 2161 prohibits Illinois employers from discriminating against an employee, or prospective employee, based upon the employee's 'family responsibilities.' 'Family responsibilities' means an employee's actual or perceived provision of personal care to a family member. Personal care includes activities to ensure that a covered family member's basic medical, hygiene, nutritional, or safety needs are met, or to provide transportation to medical appointments, for a covered family member who is unable to meet those needs themself. It also includes being physically present to provide emotional support to a covered family member with a serious health condition who is receiving inpatient or home care.

Employers are prohibited from making employment decisions based on assumptions or stereotypes about how employees in the protected class will conduct themselves based on their protected status or from targeting someone merely because of their protected status. Importantly, the law does not create an accommodation obligation or require an employer to modify its reasonable rules or policies related to leave, scheduling, productivity, attendance, absenteeism, timeliness, work performance, etc.
Reproductive Health: Effective January 1, 2025, Illinois employers must not discriminate against an employee for actual or perceived decisions on reproductive health. 'Reproductive Health Decisions' are defined as 'a person's decisions regarding the person's use of contraception; fertility or sterilization care; assisted reproductive technologies; miscarriage management care; healthcare related to the continuation or termination of pregnancy; or prenatal, intranatal, or postnatal care.'
Time to File Complaint and Penalties: Effective January 1, 2025, Complainants will have two years after the date that a civil rights violation allegedly has been committed (extended from 300 calendar days) to file a charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights based upon employment discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. Amendments also allow for a civil penalty for 'each instance' of a violation in pattern and practice cases.

Child labor

Effective January 1, 2025, Illinois employers must comply with new requirements when employing minors. Senate Bill (SB) 3646 repeals and replaces the state's child labor law with the Child Labor Law of 2024. The Act covers minors under 16 years of age and is intended to provide 'the greatest protection of a minor's well-being.' The new law:

Requires employers to obtain an employment certificate authorizing a minor's work and maintain records on the premises.
Specifies allowable work hours and times. Minors (with certain exceptions) generally cannot work:
- more than 18 hours during a week when school is in session;
- more than 40 hours during a week when school is not in session;
- more than eight hours in any single 24-hour period;
- between 7pm and 7am from Labor Day until June 1 or between 9pm and 7am from June 1 until Labor Day; and
- more than three hours per day or more than eight hours total of work and school hours on days when school is in session.
Requires supervision of minors at all times by an adult 21 years or older.
Provides that minors cannot work for more than five hours continuously without a least a 30-minute meal period.
Requires employers to post a notice summarizing requirements.
Provides for civil and criminal penalties for violations.

Whistleblowers

Effective January 1, 2025, amendments to the Illinois Whistleblower Act significantly expand the Act's coverage. Existing law prohibited employers from taking adverse actions against employees who reported the employer’s unlawful activity (or activity reasonably believed to be unlawful) to public bodies, such as government authorities or in court. Under HB 5561, in addition to these prohibitions, employers cannot retaliate against employees who disclose or threaten to disclose such information to any supervisor, principal officer, board member, or supervisor in an organization that has a contractual relationship with the employer. Employers are likewise prohibited from retaliating against employees who report information regarding employer activities they reasonably believe pose a substantial and specific danger to employees, public health, or safety. The amendments also expand the definition of 'adverse action' to include any action that 'could dissuade a reasonable worker from disclosing or threatening to disclose' information protected by the law.

E-Verify

Effective January 1, 2025, SB 3208 requires Illinois employers to comply with new requirements in the event of a discrepancy in an employee's employment verification documentation. Specifically, if an employer asserts that a discrepancy exists in an employee's employment verification information, the employer must provide the employee with:

The specific document(s) deemed to be deficient and the reason. If requested by the employee, the employer must provide the original document(s) within seven business days.
Instructions on how the employee can correct the alleged deficient documents.
(If permitted by an E-Verify MOU (MOU)) An explanation of the employee's right to have representation present during related meetings with the employer.
An explanation of any other rights that the employee may have in connection with the employer's contention.

In addition, when an employer receives notification from any federal or State agency of a discrepancy related to an employee's work authorization:

The employer cannot take any adverse action against the employee based on the notification.
The employer must provide a notice with specific information to the employee and, if allowed by an MOU, to the employee's authorized representative (if any), as soon as practicable, but not more than five business days after the date of receipt of the notification (unless a shorter timeline is provided for under federal law or a collective bargaining agreement).
The employee notice must be hand-delivered, if possible. Alternatively, the employee notice must be delivered by mail and email (if known) and must notify the employee's authorized representative, if any.
Upon request by the employee or the employee's authorized representative, the employer must provide the original notice from the agency within seven business days.
The employee can have a representative in any meetings with the employer.

Employers must also provide notice to each current employee, by posting in English and in any language commonly used in the workplace, of any inspections of I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms or other employment records conducted by the inspecting entity within 72 hours after receiving notice of the inspection. Significantly, employers cannot impose greater verification or re-verification requirements than those required by federal law.

Pay stub retention and access

Effective January 1, 2025, Illinois employers are required to comply with new pay stub retention and access requirements. Under HB 3763, employers must:

Maintain a copy of employee pay stubs for at least three years after the date of payment, regardless of whether the employee's employment ends during that period.
Provide a copy of the employee's pay stubs within 21 days of the employee's request (which the employer can require in writing). An employer is not required to grant an employee's request for a copy of pay stubs more than twice in a 12-month period.
Provide a copy of a former employee's previous pay stubs within 21 days of the former employee's request, who can decide on the form – physical or electronic. An employer is not required to grant a former employee's request more than twice in a 12-month period or more than one year after the date of separation.
For an employer who furnishes electronic pay stubs in a manner that a former employee cannot access for at least a full year after separation, upon an employee's separation from employment and by the end of the outgoing employee's final pay period, offer to provide the outgoing employee with a record of all of their pay stubs from the year preceding the date of separation. The employer must record the date on which this offer was made and the outgoing employee's response. Requests must be made to a person responsible for maintaining the employer's payroll, including the employer's HR or payroll department, the employee's supervisor or department manager, or an individual designated in the employer's written policy.

Employers that violate the new provisions can be subject to a civil penalty of up to USD500 per violation.

Personnel Records

Effective January 1, 2025, Illinois employers with five or more employees must comply with new requirements related to employee requests for personnel records under the Illinois Personnel Records Review Act. Under the new law, employee requests must:

be made in writing, which includes email or text messages;
be made at reasonable intervals (employers must grant at least two requests from an individual or their representative in a calendar year);
be made to a person responsible for maintaining the employer's personnel records, including the employer's human resources department, payroll department, the employee's supervisor or department manager, or to an individual as provided in the employer's written policy;
identify what personnel records the employee is requesting / if the employee is requesting all records allowed under the law;
specify if the employee is requesting to inspect, copy, or receive copies of the records and, if hard copy, the form (hardcopy or electronic); and
specify whether inspection, copying, or receipt of copies will be performed by the employee's representative and if the records being requested include medical information, include a signed waiver to release records to the representative.

If a request meets the above requirements, employers must provide:

any personnel documents which are, have been or are intended to be used in determining that employee's qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, discharge, or other disciplinary action;
any employment-related contracts or agreements that the employer maintains are legally binding on the employee; and
any employee handbooks that the employer made available to the employee or that the employee acknowledged receiving, and any written employer policies or procedures that the employer contends the employee was subject to and that concern qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, discharge, or other disciplinary action.

Employers must produce requested documents to which employees are entitled within seven working days after receipt of the request. If the employer can reasonably show that such deadline cannot be met, the employer might have an additional seven calendar days to comply. Any fee charged by the employer is limited to the actual cost of duplicating the requested records.

Under the amendments, an employee can bring an action in circuit court if the Illinois Department of Labor does not resolve their administrative complaint within 180 calendar days.

Captive audience ban

Effective January 1, 2025, all employers in Illinois are prohibited from requiring employees to participate in employer-sponsored meetings communicating an employer's position on religious or political matters under the Worker Freedom of Speech Act. 'Political matters' includes matters relating to elections for political office; political parties; proposals to change legislation, regulations or public policy; and the decision to join or support any political party or political, civic, community, fraternal, or labor organization.

The Worker Freedom of Speech Act (SB 3694):

Prohibits employers from taking an adverse employment action against an employee for declining to attend or participate in an employer-sponsored meeting or receive or listen to communications from the employer about religious matters or political matters or for making a good faith report of a violation or a suspected violation of the act.
Prohibits employers from using rewards/positive incentives to persuade employees to participate.
Requires employers to post a notice of employee rights under the Act.
Allows employees to bring a civil on behalf of themselves and other employees similarly situated no later than one year after the date of the alleged violation. An 'interested party' (such as a union) can also file a complaint to the Illinois Department of Labor on a worker's behalf and seek to bring a lawsuit.
Provides that the Department can assess a civil penalty of USD1,000 for each violation.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

Effective January 1, 2026, it is a civil rights violation for any Illinois employer (1) to use AI that has the effect of subjecting employees to discrimination or to use zip codes as a proxy for protected classes, and (2) to fail to notify employees of the employer's use of AI.

'Artificial intelligence' is defined broadly as 'a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments'. It also includes generative AI.

The law will require employers to provide notice to employees when they use AI for purposes of 'recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, or the terms, privileges, or conditions of employment.'

The law further directs the Illinois Department of Human Rights to adopt rules on the circumstances and conditions that require notice, the time period for providing notice, and the means for providing notice.

Biometric Privacy Act

Effective August 2, 2024, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) does not provide for per-scan damages. SB 2979 amends BIPA to limit recoverable damages to a single recovery per person for multiple violations involving the collection or dissemination of the same biometric information from the same person using the same method. Prior to the amendment, employees could claim that a separate violation of BIPA occurred each time they used the biometric solution. The amendment should help reign in BIPA class action litigation in Illinois, which has led to Illinois businesses paying hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and judgments.

Employers in Illinois are encouraged to review and update their policies, procedures and training to prepare for new requirements in 2025.