/>iBy now, Illinois employers can confidently predict that with each new year comes new employment laws, and 2025 will be no different. Among the changes for Illinois employers are expanded protections under the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA), new pay transparency obligations, new personnel record and pay stub obligations, and limitations on restrictive covenants in the mental health industry. Here’s what you need to know for the new laws taking effect January 1, 2025:
New Amendments to IHRA Give Employees More Time to File Claims and Add a Variety of New Protections
The IHRA has been amended in several significant ways. First, effective January 1, 2025, the deadline for employees to file charges of discrimination with the Illinois Department of Human Rights has been extended from 300 days to two years, joining an increasing number of states that have lengthened the time for employees to file claims under state fair employment laws. While this change does not affect the deadline for employees to file discrimination or harassment claims with the EEOC under federal laws (which remains 300 days), the amendments will allow employees to pursue claims under state law long after the federal filing window closes.
In addition, the IHRA will prohibit discrimination on the basis of an individual’s “reproductive health decisions,” which are defined as decisions regarding an individual’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.”
Also coming with the new year is a new IHRA prohibition on harassment based on an employee’s “family responsibilities,” defined as “an employee’s actual or perceived provision of personal care to” the employee’s child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent. “Personal care” is defined broadly: “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 himself or herself,” as well as “being physically present to provide emotional support to a covered family member with a serious health condition who is receiving inpatient or home care.” Note, however, that while the IHRA will prohibit harassment based on family responsibilities, it does not require employers to “make accommodations for an employee based on family responsibilities, including accommodations related to leave, scheduling, absenteeism, timeliness, work performance [or] benefits.”
With these amendments to the IHRA around the corner, Illinois employers should be more cautious than ever when making decisions about employees who may have one of these new protected characteristics.
New Pay Transparency Requirements
With the new year, Illinois will become the latest state to require job postings to contain certain pay and benefits information, joining the likes of Colorado, California, New York, and Oregon. The new requirements, which take effect via an amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003, require employers with 15 or more employees to include “pay scale and benefits” information in every job posting.
The phrase “pay scale and benefits” is defined broadly to include the position’s wage or salary (or the wage/salary range), and a “general description of the benefits and other compensation” for the position, including, but not limited to, bonuses, stock options, and other incentives an employer “reasonably expects in good faith to offer for the position.” To determine this information, the law says employers should look at any applicable pay scale in place, previously determined range for the position, the actual wage or salary range of other employees holding that position, or the budgeted amount for the position.
These requirements apply to positions that will be physically performed in Illinois, as well as remote positions for non-Illinois employees who will report to a supervisor, office, or other worksite within Illinois.
To be clear, the new law does not require that all openings have postings. Rather, only if an employer decides to post a position must the posting comply with the new requirements. Also, employers can satisfy these new requirements by providing a hyperlink to a publicly viewable webpage that includes the information. Notably, if an employer uses a third party to post, announce, or otherwise make the job posting known, the employer is responsible for providing the third party with the pay scale and benefits information for the posting.
In addition, covered employers must “announce, post, or otherwise make known all opportunities for promotion to all current employees no later than 14 calendar days” after posting the position externally. And employers will be required to make and preserve records documenting the pay scale and benefits for each position and the posting for each position.
Employees alleging violations can file complaints with the Illinois Department of Labor, violations may carry stiff penalties of up to $500 for a first offense and $2,500 for a second offense, and up to $10,000 for a third or subsequent offense. Employers will be provided brief cure periods only for first and second offenses. In light of these potential consequences, employers should review each and every job posting for compliance, including those for jobs posted prior to January 1, 2025, and those posted in the new year and beyond.
Changes to Illinois’ Personnel Records Access Law
With the new year comes substantive changes to Illinois’ Personnel Record Review Act (IPRRA), expanding the types of personnel records that must be produced to employees and imposing penalties for violations.
Historically, in response to an employee’s request for personnel records, an employer was required to produce only “personnel documents which are, have been or are intended to be used in determining that employee's qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, additional compensation, discharge, or other disciplinary action.” Starting January 1, 2025, that core definition will be greatly expanded to also include the following additional categories of documents that an employer must produce if requested by an employee:
- Documents which are, have been, or are intended to be used in determining the employee’s benefits;
- Any “employment-related contracts or agreements that the employer maintains are legally binding on the employee;”
- Any handbooks that the employer “made available to the employee or that the employee acknowledged receiving” (in other words, any handbook the employee ever received during employment); and
- Any “written 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.”
The amended IPRRA also includes certain clarifications, among them that an employer can require all personnel records requests to be made in writing to the person responsible for maintaining the employer’s records (such as the employer's human resources department) and that the seven working days an employer has to comply with an employee’s records request runs from the date the employer receives the request rather than the date the employee makes the request.
In addition, the amended IPRRA provides that employee requests must be in writing, must be made “in reasonable intervals,” (but, as always, no more than twice each calendar year) and must:
- Identify what records are being requested or if the employee is asking for all records available under the IPRRA;
- Specify if the employee is requesting to inspect, copy, or receive copies of their records;
- Specify whether records be provided in hard copy or electronically;
- Specify whether inspection, copying, or receipt of copies will be performed by that employee's representative, including family members, lawyers, union stewards, other union officials, or translators; and
- Include a signed waiver to release medical information and medical records to that employee's specific representative if the records being requested include medical information and medical records.
Finally, and importantly, if an employee files a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL), and IDOL has not resolved their complaint within 180 days or has provided certification that it will not be able to resolve their complaint within 180 days, the employee will have the right to file a lawsuit in state circuit court. Given that employers found to have committed knowing and willful violations of the IPRRA may be required to pay an employee’s attorneys fees, employers should review their current practices for handling and responding to employee personnel record requests before the new amendments take effect.
New Pay Stub Recordkeeping and Access Requirements
Along with the IPRRA, the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (IWPCA) has been amended for 2025 to require employers to provide an employee with copies of their pay stubs within 21 calendar days of their request – up to twice in any 12-month period, including during the 12-month period following their separation from employment. Employers can require pay stub requests to be in writing and be made to the individual responsible for maintaining payroll, whether human resources, the payroll department, or an individual identified in the employer’s written policy.
Notably, employers who furnish electronic pay stubs, but not in a manner that allows former employees to access their pay stubs for “at least a full year after separation,” must offer in writing to provide to outgoing employees, by no later than end of their final pay period, a record of their pay stubs for the year preceding their separation from employment. And employers must maintain pay stubs for at least three years following the pay stub date. Employers who violate the new pay stub requirements are subject to civil penalties of up to $500.
In light of the new requirements, employers should review their pay stub practices and ensure that employees responsible for payroll and personnel records are familiar with the new requirements.
New Limitations on Restrictive Covenants in the Mental Health Industry
The Illinois Freedom to Work Act has been amended to limit non-competition and non-solicitation covenants in the mental health industry for providers that serve veterans and first responders. Specifically, under the amended law, non-competition and non-solicitation covenants entered into, on, or after January 1, 2025, are not enforceable with respect to the provision of mental health services to veterans and first responders by any licensed mental health professional if the enforcement of the covenant “is likely to result in an increase in cost or difficulty for any veteran or first responder seeking mental health services.”
First responders covered by the amended law are emergency medical services (EMS), firefighters, and law enforcement. Those licensed mental health professionals covered include anyone licensed under Clinical Psychologist Licensing Act, the Clinical Social Work and Social Work Practice Act, the Marriage and Family Therapy Licensing Act, the Nurse Practice Act, or the Professional Counselor and Clinical Professional Counselor Licensing and Practice Act.
Employers in the mental health field who provide services to veterans and first responders should review their restrictive covenant agreements to ensure compliance with the new law.
What Should Employers Do?
The new laws may appear daunting, but like all legal developments, they can be addressed proactively through proper planning and training.
