2024 was without a doubt a whirlwind of a year, including for the Illinois legislature. To that point, there are a number of Illinois employment laws and amendments that have either recently gone into effect or are set to go into effect January 1, 2025. But fear not! Here are all the new laws and changes affecting Illinois employers in one place, so that you are primed and ready to comply to the changes.
Pay Transparency
The Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003 was amended last year to increase transparency in both job opportunities available and their rate of pay. The amendments in HB 3129, signed into law in 2023 and effective January 1, 2025, will affect employers with fifteen or more employees, requiring them to include information on a position’s salary and benefits into job postings for employment within Illinois, and for work that reports to a supervisor or work site within the Inland Empire State. The amendments apply regardless of whether the employer is posting the job from their own webpage, or through a third party. The employer is also obligated to keep records of the pay scale and benefits for each position, as well as the job posting, just as they are required to keep records of actual wages paid.
The employer must provide notice to all current employees of the opportunity for promotion no later than fourteen calendar days after an external job posting has been created. However, the amendment only applies to postings created after January 1, 2025, so there is no requirement to update existing postings from before the new year. If an employer violates the amended statute, they will receive a notice from the Illinois Department of Labor listing the applicable penalties, and may receive a period for cure, depending on the number of prior offenses.
Illinois Human Rights Act
The Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”) will be expanded in 2025, with new protections, greater time for employees to file complaints and limits on artificial intelligence (AI):
- First, HB 4867 has expanded the IHRA to cover reproductive health decisions which includes an employee’s decisions regarding the use of contraception, fertility or sterilization care, assisted reproductive technologies, miscarriage management care, healthcare related to continuation and termination of a pregnancy, and natal care;
- Next, HB 2161 has created protections for family responsibilities under the IHRA, covering both the actual and perceived provision of personal care to a family member. The amendment borrows definitions from the Employee Sick Leave Act to establish what care and which family members are covered, meaning that direct family members are the only individuals covered, and the covered conduct includes medical appointments, tending to basic medical, hygiene, nutritional, or safety needs, and providing emotional support to relatives with serious health conditions receiving inpatient or home care.
Employers should take note that they are not required to accommodate or modify policies based on the family responsibilities under the amendment, including accommodations for leave, attendance, performance, scheduling and benefits. Employers likewise can enforce their own reasonable workplace policies on the matters, including taking adverse action for noncompliance.
HB 3773 does not go into effect until January 1, 2026, but employers should still keep note of the amendment as we rapidly enter a world assisted by AI. The amendment to the IHRA makes it a civil rights violation for an employer to use AI in recruitment, hiring, and other employment decisions in a manner that would subject employees to discrimination under the act. It will also be a violation to use AI that uses zip codes as a proxy for protected classes when making employment decisions. The employer must additionally give employees notice if they use artificial intelligence in their employment decisions. The amendment gives the Illinois Department of Human Rights the authority to adopt additional rules as necessary.
Moving from substance to procedure, SB 3310, effective January 1, 2025, has extended the deadline for filing a charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights. The deadline, formerly 300 days, now extends to two years after the alleged violation. This is important for employers as the filing timeline for employment discrimination claims to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission still stands at 300 days, meaning a claim that is time-barred under federal law may still be actionable under the IHRA.
Whistleblower Coverage Expansion
The Illinois Legislature also significantly expanded coverage for the Illinois Whistleblower Act through HB 5561, effective January 1, 2025. Whistleblowers will be protected from retaliation for disclosing or threatening to disclose information, activities, policies, or practices that they believe in good faith violate the law or pose a substantial and specific danger to other employees, the public health, or public safety. The employer will also be prohibited from imposing discipline on an employee that discloses or threatens to disclose relevant information to a supervisor, principal officer, board member, or supervisor in an organization that has a contractual relationship with the employer. The definition of an “adverse employment action” has also been expanded to include conduct that “could dissuade a reasonable worker from disclosing or threatening to disclose information.”
E-Verify Changes
Employers will be subject to new compliance requirements for E-Verify issues, starting January 1, 2025. SB 0508 requires employers to disclose additional information to employees if there is a dispute over the employee’s verification information. This includes providing the employee with:
- The specific document that the employer finds to be deficient, and a description of the reason for dispute. If the employee requests, the employer must provide the original document(s) within seven business days.
- Instructions on how the employee can correct the deficiency.
- An explanation of the employee’s rights related to the employer’s contention.
- An explanation of the right to have representation present during meetings with the employer related to the E-Verify dispute, if allowed under a E-Verify Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
SB 0508 also gives the employee additional protections when a federal or State agency informs the employer of a work authorization discrepancy. The employer cannot take adverse action against the employee at issue and must provide a notice of the discrepancy to the employee within five business days. The employee is allowed to request and receive a copy of the original notice from the agency within seven business days. Further, employees are also allowed to have a representative of their choosing present at any meetings or discussions with the employer.
If an employer receives notice from a government entity that their E-Verify information is being inspected, the employer must provide notice of the inspection to current employees and their representatives, in both English and other languages commonly used in the workplace, within 72 hours of receiving the notice. Finally, an employer cannot impose greater verification requirements than those required by federal law.
Pay Stub Retention
Effective January 1, 2025, employers will need to comply with new pay stub retention and access requirements under SB 3208. Employers will be required to maintain a copy of employee pay stubs for at least three years after the date of payment, regardless of the employee’s subsequent employment status. Upon request, the employer must provide an employee or former employee a copy of their pay stubs within 21 days but is not required to accept more than two requests by an employee in a twelve-month period. If the pay stubs will be inaccessible to a former employee after less than a year of separation, then the employer must offer to provide a record of all the employee’s pay stubs from the past year when the employee separation from employment, and keep records of the offer. Violations will subject the employer to a civil penalty of $500.
Changes to Personnel Records Requests
HB 3763 likewise outlines new rules for employees and employers regarding personnel records, effective January 1, 2025. The amendment provides employees access to additional types of employment documents not previously provided, including copies of legally binding contracts the employee has signed, any handbooks that the employee had access to or acknowledged receiving, and any written polices or procedures that the employee was subject to concerning employment actions.
The employee is allowed two document requests in a calendar year, made at reasonable intervals, to inspect or receive copies of records. The employee requests must be in writing and be made to a person who is responsible for maintaining personnel records, such as payroll departments, human resources, the employee’s supervisor or department manager, and any other individual provided by a written policy. The request must also identify what records the employee is requesting or state they are seeking all applicable records, state whether the employee wishes to receive or inspect the records, what form the records should be provided in, and whether an employee’s representative will be inspecting the records. If the records include medical information, the employee must also provide a signed waiver for release.
An employer must comply with the request for documents within seven days, subject to a seven-day extension for good cause. Employers must inform employees if the records are not maintained, or if the records are already accessible, and provide instructions on how to access the information. Employers should emphasize compliance with the new amendments, as they also provide an employee a cause of action in Illinois court if the Illinois Department of Labor does not resolve any complaints filed after 180 days.
Captive Audience Meetings Ban
Employers will also face a major shift in how they can conduct campaigns against unionization in the workplace. The Worker Freedom of Speech Act, SB 3649, has effectively placed a ban on “captive audience meetings,” severely limiting what content employers can discuss at mandatory employee meetings. Starting January 1, 2025, the Act bars employers from stating their position on religious and political matters at meetings that are not voluntary. The statute defines “political matters” as those relating to elections for political office, political parties, proposals to change legislation, regulation or public policy, and the decision to join or support any political party or political, civic, community, fraternal, or labor organization. The statute also states that positive and negative changes made by an employer to employment conditions in relation to meeting attendance prevents attendance at a meeting from being voluntary.
An employee who declines to participate in a meeting about religious or political matters, or refuses to receive or listen to information from their employer on the issues, is protected from penalties or discharge. Employers must also post notices of the employees’ rights to refuse being subjected to their employer’s beliefs on religious or political matters. In the event of a violation, employees can bring civil litigation for themselves or others, and may receive damages and relief as a result. The Illinois Department of Labor likewise can assess civil penalties of $1,000 for each violation.
Biometric Privacy
In a reprieve for employers, Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) will no longer provide damages per-scan under the recent amendment, SB 2979, which is already effective as of August 2, 2024. The BIPA has been amended to limit the damages recoverable by a single person, only allowing one recovery for multiple violations which involve the same biometric information from the same person using the same method. This change will undoubtably assist in mitigating risk of future BIPA class actions within the state.
Changes to the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program Act
The Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program Act (SPA) has also been amended through HB 4719, effective January 1, 2025, further altering how many employers are required to provide employee retirement plans. The new amendment gives employers an opportunity to designate open enrollment periods for the Secure Choice Savings Program, allowing employees who previously opted out of the Program the chance to enroll later. The amendments also give the employer an option to establish a qualified retirement plan at any time, rather than allowing any type of employer-sponsored retirement plan. Finally, the amendment works to remove automatic enrollment payroll deduction IRAs from the list of qualified retirement plans.
Space Force Leave
Finally, Illinois will begin to recognize the United States Space Force as an official branch of the United States Armed Forces through HB 5640, beginning January 1, 2025. As a result, employers should make changes needed to include the Space Force in language identifying Armed Forces branches, such as military leave.
Conclusion
With January 1, 2025 fast approaching, Illinois employers should review their current policies and make changes where necessary to ensure compliance with the new slate of laws. The members of Thompson Coburn’s Labor & Employment practice group are available to assist you with any changes and provide further information and specifications regarding these new requirements. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or e-mail your regular contact at Thompson Coburn.