Illinois New Employment Laws: What Employers Need To Know

Key updates on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and freedom of speech

Illinois employers must now comply with newly enacted and revised employment laws, reinforcing the state's commitment to expanding workers' rights and addressing discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and freedom of speech.

Illinois Human Rights Act Amendments

Period to File Complaints: Effective January 1, 2025, several amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”) have gone into effect. Notably, the amendments more than double the time period for filing a charge of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. Complainants will now have 2 years from the date of the alleged violation – instead of the current 300 days – to file complaints with the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

Expanded Protected Classes: The amendments also add new protected classes to the IHRA.

Family Responsibilities: Under the amended Act, employers are prohibited from discriminating against an employee, or prospective employee, based upon the employee’s “family responsibilities.” Family responsibilities include an employee’s actual or perceived responsibilities to provide personal care to a family member. Personal care includes:
 

• activities related to meeting a covered family member’s basic medical, hygiene, nutritional, or safety needs are met;
• providing transportation to a family member who is unable to meet such needs;
• time spent providing emotional support to a covered family member with a serious health condition who is receiving inpatient or home care.

Reproductive Health Decisions: Similarly, the IHRA will prohibit discrimination on the basis of “reproductive health decisions.” In doing so, Illinois joins several other jurisdictions that prohibit discrimination on this basis. Reproductive health decisions include a person’s decisions regarding contraception, fertility care, assisted reproductive technologies, miscarriage management care, healthcare related to the continuation and or termination of pregnancy, and any pre-, intra-, or postnatal care.

Illinois Equal Pay Act Amendments

The Illinois Equal Pay Act will require that employers with 15 or more employees disclose “pay scale and benefits” in all job postings. The mandatory disclosures must include the wage or salary (or the wage or salary range), along with a general description of benefits and other forms of compensation, such as bonuses, stock options, and other incentives the employer plans to offer for the position. These pay disclosure requirements apply only to jobs that:
 

• will be performed, at least partially, in Illinois; or
• will be performed outside of Illinois if the hired employee will report to a supervisor, office, or other work site located in Illinois.

Another critical aspect is the emphasis on transparency regarding internal promotional opportunities. Employers are required to announce, post, or otherwise make known all opportunities for promotion to current employees no later than 14 calendar days after making an external job posting for the same position. Employers must also maintain records of job postings, pay scales, benefits, and wages for each position for at least five years. (Prior update on these changes is available here.)

Worker Freedom of Speech Act

Reflective of the increased efforts limiting employers’ ability to conduct “captive audience” meetings, the Worker Freedom of Speech Act will prohibit employers from threatening to take or taking any adverse employment actions against employees for the following reasons:
 

• declining to participate or attend an employer-sponsored meeting if the meeting is to communicate about religious or political matters;
• as a means of inducing an employee to attend or participate in a meeting about religious or political matters; and
• making a good faith report of a violation or suspected violation of the Act.

Among other topics, “political matters” include the decision to join or support a labor organization.

If an employer violates the Act, the aggrieved employee has one year after the date of the alleged violation to bring a civil action. A prevailing employee may be awarded injunctive relief, reinstatement, back pay, reinstated benefits, including seniority, reasonable attorney’s fees, and costs. The Illinois Department of Labor may also investigate alleged violations, and may recover up to $1,000 for each violation per affected employee.

Whistleblower Act Amendments

Amendments to the Whistleblower Act alter the definitions of several key statutory terms, including “adverse employment action,” which will include actions that “a reasonable employee would find materially adverse.” An action is materially adverse when it “could dissuade a reasonable worker from disclosing or threatening to disclose” certain information, including information concerning their employer’s activity, policy, or practice the employee believes violates or poses a “substantial and specific danger to employees, public health, or safety.”

It likewise includes and broadly defines “retaliatory actions” that employers are prohibited from engaging in. For instance, unlawful retaliation includes:
 

• taking action against employees who disclose or threaten to disclose information to any supervisor, principal officer, board member, or supervisor in an organization;
• contacting, threatening to contact, or otherwise reporting/threatening to report an employee’s suspected or actual citizenship or immigration status; or
• intentionally interfering with a former employee’s employment.

The amendments also include stricter penalties, providing aggrieved individuals with a private right of action in which they could recover up to $10,000 in liquidated damages as well as a $10,000 penalty, in addition to fees and costs. Likewise, the Attorney General is empowered to seek remedies under the Act and may request a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each repeat violation within a 5-year period.

Overall, the amendments expand employees’ statutory protections under the Act due to the broadly defined statutory language. However, the Act now expressly provides an additional defense for employers to defeat claims provided that the alleged retaliatory action was based solely on grounds other than the employee’s statutorily protected conduct.

Child Labor Law of 2024

The Child Labor Law of 2024 repealed the previous Illinois child labor law and covers minors under the age of 16. The law specifies the allowable work hours and times for minors, such as not working more than 18 hours while school is in session (down from 24 hours) or not working more than 40 when school is out of session, but also provides certain exceptions. The law further clarifies that civil and criminal penalties can be imposed for violations and requires employers to obtain and maintain on the premises an employment certificate authorizing a minor’s work. Other notable aspects of the new law include:
 

• ensuring all minors are supervised by an adult 21 years or older while the minors are working;
• minors 13 years of age or younger cannot work in any occupation at any workplace unless they satisfy an exemption under the Act;
• an expansion of prohibited occupations for minors to work in, such as in any cannabis shops, barber, cosmetology, esthetics, hair braiding, and nail technology services requiring a license, or any other occupation determined by the Director to be hazardous.

Personnel Records Review Act Amendment

The recent amendment imposes new obligations on employers, including the method for requesting personnel records and the intervals in which requests may be made.

Request Requirements:  Requests need to be made to a person responsible for maintaining the employer’s personnel records and must identify the records an employee is requesting. The employee must specify whether they are requesting to inspect, copy, or receive copies of the records; if they elect to request copies, they must specify whether they want electronic or hard copy formats.

What Can Be Requested: The Amendment expands the types of records an employee may request. This now includes:
 

• any employment-related contracts or agreements that the employer maintains are legally binding on the employee;
• any personnel documents used to determine an employee’s qualifications for benefits and compensation;
• any employee handbooks that the employer made available to the employee or that the employee acknowledged receiving;
• 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.

Additional Exception: The Amendment adds an exception to personnel records that must be disclosed, clarifying that the right to inspection does not apply to an “employer’s trade secrets, client lists, sales projections, and financial data.”

Wage Payment and Collection Act Amendment

Amendments to the Wage Payment and Collection Act change employers’ recordkeeping obligations. Employers will soon be required to retain copies of pay stubs for a minimum of three years after the date of payment, regardless of whether an employee’s employment ends during that period. Employers will also need to provide current or former employees with copies of their pay stubs within 21 days of a request. However, employers will not be required to approve more than two requests in a calendar year.

The amendments clarify the meaning of a “pay stub” under the Act, which includes “an itemized statement or statements reflecting an employee’s hours worked, rate of pay, overtime pay and overtime hours worked, gross wages earned, deductions made from the employee’s wages, and the total of wages and deductions year to date.”

For employers who provide electronic pay stubs that employees cannot access for a year following their separation, they must offer to provide, upon an employee’s separation of employment, a record of all pay stubs for the past year. Notably, employers must document this offer in writing, noting (1) the date the offer was made; and (2) the employee’s response.

Employers who fail to furnish a paystub or otherwise comply with these amendments will be subject to a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation.

Read the complete article here.

	Erin Dougherty Foley is a Partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
	Sara Eber Fowler is a Partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
	Taylor Iaculla is an Associate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
	Ridhima Bhalla is an Associate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
	Hannah Sosenko is an Associate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.