The following changes to Illinois employment law take effect on January 1, 2025, and apply to employers of all sizes unless otherwise noted. Below are summaries of the changes.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE
Illinois’ minimum wage will increase to $15 per hour. The minimum base wage for tipped employees will increase to $9 per hour. The law applies to employers with four or more employees.

PAY AND BENEFITS IN JOB POSTINGS
Employers with 15 or more employees will be required to post a pay scale in their job postings. The law applies to internal and external job postings for all positions that will be physically performed in the state (even partially), or outside the state if the employee will report to a supervisor or 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. This can be done through an announcement, posting, or by 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 (e.g., the assumption that a woman will be taking care of children or aging parents).

Action Item
Add reproductive health decisions and family responsibilities to your 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 their pay stubs, in writing, twice in a 12-month period, and employers will 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 after termination, 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 five or more employees will be required to provide new types of records upon request—these include legally binding employment contracts or 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 that that are exempt from access—these include 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 their 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 their 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.

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE MEETINGS
Employers will be prohibited from taking—or threatening to take—adverse action against an employee to get them to attend, or for not attending, an employer-sponsored meeting if its purpose is to express the employer’s opinion on religious or political matters. The same applies to receiving or listening to communications for this purpose. Political matters include (but aren’t limited to) the decision to join or support any political party or any political, civic, community, fraternal, or labor organization. The law does have several exceptions that are outlined on the Illinois Employment Discrimination and Accommodations laws page.

Notice
Employers are required to post a notice about these rights within 30 days of the law becoming effective. We don’t know if the state will create a sample notice, but you can check the Illinois Department of Labor poster website for one closer to January 31, 2025.

Action Items

Allow employees to opt out of any meeting or communication covered by this law.
Post the required notice where other employee notices are displayed by January 31, 2025.