Illinois Law Updates January 2025
The following changes to Illinois employment law take effect on January 1, 2025, and apply to employers of all sizes unless otherwise noted:
Pay & Benefits in Job Posting
Employers with 15+ employees will be required to post a pay scale in both internal and external job postings for all positions physically performed in the state (even partially), or outside the state if the employee will report to a supervisor/location in the state. Job postings must also include a general description of any benefits and other compensation offered for that position, including bonuses, stock options, and other incentives.
Employers can comply with the disclosure requirements by including a hyperlink to an easily accessible public web page that features the pay scale and benefits for the specific position. If a job posting wasn’t available to an applicant, employers need to provide this information before any job offer or discussion of compensation occurs, or upon the applicant’s request.
Promotion Opportunities
Employers must inform all current employees about promotion opportunities within 14 days after posting the job externally through an announcement, posting, or any other effective means.
Action Items
Amend job postings to include the required information by January 1, 2025
Announce promotional opportunities to current employees within the 14-day time period
Equal Employment
Illinois’ antidiscrimination law will be expanded to protect reproductive health decisions and family responsibilities. Reproductive health decisions include, but aren’t limited to, decisions to use contraception, reproductive technologies, prenatal care, or pregnancy termination care. Family responsibilities are defined as an employee’s actual or perceived caregiving for a family member (i.e., the assumption that a woman will be taking care of children or aging parents).
Action Item
Add reproductive health decisions and family responsibilities to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies by January 1, 2025.
Pay Stubs
Employee pay stubs will need to include hours worked, rate of pay, overtime hours worked, overtime pay, gross wages, deductions, and total year-to-date wages and deductions. Employees will be able to request copies of pay stubs in writing twice in a 12-month period, and employers need to provide copies within 21 days. Former employees have the same rights for up to one year after termination.
If an employer provides pay stubs electronically and a former employee won’t be able to access them online, the employer needs to proactively offer them the previous year of pay stubs at the end of employment and keep a record of the offer and response.
Personnel Records
Employers with 5+ employees will be required to provide new types of records upon request including legally binding employment contracts/agreements, handbooks, written policies related to employment actions, and personnel documents that determine qualifications for compensation or benefits. There are also new types of records exempt from access including trade secrets, client lists, sales projections, and financial data.
Employment Eligibility Verification Changes
Employers will be required to provide employees with specific notices and rights when a discrepancy is found in employment authorization documents. Employer obligations will vary depending on whether the discrepancy was found by the employer, a government agency, or a federal government inspection. Employers must also inform employees about Form I-9 and employment record inspections within 72 hours of being notified. The Illinois Department of Labor will create a sample notice for this purpose by June 30, 2025.
Cook County Paid Leave Guidance
Cook County has updated its Paid Leave rules. While many of the amendments were made to further align with the Paid Leave Ordinance, notable substantive changes include, but aren’t limited to, the following:
Paid leave must continue to accrue during an employee’s use of Paid Leave
Paid Leave must be paid out within the same period in which it was used
Employers must post the county’s Workplace Posting, which can be found on the Cook County Paid Leave Ordinance website
The county also released updated FAQs. The amendments to the Paid Leave Ordinance Interpretive and Procedural Rules were approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners on October 24, 2024, and became effective immediately.