Changes to Illinois and City of Chicago Labor and Employment Laws
I. Passing of the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act (PLFAW).
The new Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act becomes effective on January 1, 2024. The Act applies to most employees in the state, with very limited exceptions (notably students and independent contractors are excluded). Employers may use two alternative methods to comply with the PLFAW.
One option is to provide 40 hours of leave as a lump sum, which would be frontloaded on the first day of employment or on the first day of a designated 12-month period. The second option is to use an accrual method, which entitles employees to accrue one paid hour of leave per 40 hours worked. Once time is accrued, employees can take paid time off for any reason and are not provided to provide documentation to their employers. There are specific distinctions for part-time employees that employers should also consider. If the employee’s leave is foreseeable, employees are required to give their employers one week’s notice, but otherwise, employees are simply required to give notice when possible. Employers can set a reasonable minimum increment of taking the leave (no more than two hours per day).
For a further summary of the PLFAW and applicable employer requirements please visit Dykema’s article summarizing the statute here.
II. Passing of Chicago’s Paid Leave for Any Reason and Sick Leave Ordinance.
Effective July 1, 2024, Chicago’s Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance, which replaces the current Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, now grants up to 10 total days of paid time off per year to Chicago workers. The new ordinance applies to any employee who works at least 80 hours for an employer within any 120-day period while being physically present within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago. Once this threshold is reached, the employee will remain a “Covered Employee” for the remainder of the time that the employee works for the employer. Eligible employees are entitled to one hour of paid leave and one hour of paid sick leave for each 35 hour increment they work, maxing out at 40 hours of each per year. Similar to the PLFAW above, Chicago employers may use two alternative methods of accrual to comply with the ordinance including a lump-sum front-loading method, or accrual method.
Paid leave under the ordinance may be used for any purpose, without any requirement that employees disclose the reason for which paid leave is being used. However, employers can establish reasonable policies for the use of the paid leave for any reason. Paid sick leave, on the other hand, is only available for specified purposes. If an employee’s paid sick leave is “reasonably foreseeable,” an employer can require up to seven-days’ notice before the sick leave is taken, but if the employee’s paid sick leave is not “reasonably foreseeable,” an employer can require that notice be provided as soon practicable.
This new Chicago ordinance has significant differences from both the previous Chicago sick leave ordinance and the PLFAW described in Section I above, which is also set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. So, Chicago employers should ensure they are meeting the requirements of both statutes. For a further summary of the Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick Leave Ordinance and employer requirements please visit Dykema’s article summarizing the ordinance here.
III. Amendments to the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act.
The Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act applies to temporary labor agencies and their clients. It was recently amended to impose new responsibilities on staffing agencies and companies utilizing temporary workers to meet their staffing needs and provide additional protection for the employees who work for these agencies and clients. The recent amendments to the Act create new obligations on staffing agencies, including for example, allowing staffing agency employees the right to refuse an assignment to a third-party employer experiencing a labor dispute (strike, lockout, or other labor dispute).
Most significantly, any employee of a staffing agency who is assigned to a third-party client for more than 90 days must be “paid a rate and benefits equal to those of the lowest paid directly hired employee of the client with the same level of seniority who is performing the same or substantially similar work.” If there is not a comparable employee, then the temporary employee must be paid “an equal rate and equal benefits to the lowest paid directly hired employee with the closest level of seniority to the applicable temporary employee.” Upon request, a third-party client, where a temporary employee has been assigned for more than 90 days, must provide the staffing agency with relevant information regarding their directly hired employees’ job duties, pay, and benefits.
For a further summary of the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act and employer requirements please visit Dykema’s article summarizing the statute here.
IV. Amendments to the Illinois Blood and Orgon Donation Leave Act.
Previously, under the Employee Blood Donation Leave Act, Illinois employees were entitled to one hour of leave to donate blood per every period that health organizations deemed it healthy to donate (i.e. the American Red Cross currently says blood can be donated once every eight weeks). Effective January 1, 2024, Employee Blood Donation Leave Act was amended to provide additional benefits for those donating organs or tissues. These benefits include granting employees additional time off for organ donations. Specifically, the expansion entitles employees to ten days off in a given 12-month period for organ donations. Organ is defined loosely, as any organ that can be donated. Employees must be employed for six months or more by an employer and the Act only applies to private employers with 51 or more employees. Employees still have the right to take one hour of paid leave every 56 days for the purpose of donating blood.
V. Passing of the Illinois Child Extended Bereavement Leave Act (CEBLA).
Illinois expanded protection for grieving parents by bolstering the existing Illinois Family Bereavement Leave Act. Effective January 1, 2024, the Illinois Child Extended Bereavement Act now allows employees to take various amounts of unpaid leave following the homicide or suicide of their child. Employers with 50-249 employees must provide six weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave, while larger employers (250 or more employees) are required to provide employees twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. Employees can elect to take the leave on a continuous basis, or on an intermittent basis in increments of at least four hours. Employees are required to take this leave within a year of providing their employer notice of the need to do so.
Unlike the Family Bereavement Act, which requires that leave be taken within 60 days after the employee receives notice of the death of a family member, leave under the Child Extended Bereavement Leave Act may be taken within one year after the employee notifies the employer of the loss. Furthermore, employees who take leave under the Child Extended Bereavement Act are not entitled to take additional leave under the Illinois Family Bereavement Act for the death of the same child.
VI. Amendments to the Illinois Labor Disputes Act (LDA).
Illinois passed two amendments to the Labor Disputes Act, providing additional protections for striking and picketing employees effective January 1, 2024. First, in HB 2907, the new amendment limits the monetary damages that an employer can recover in cases involving labor disputes to the employer’s property damage as a result of unlawful conduct. Second in HB 3396, the new amendment amended the LDA to make “interfering with, obstructing, or impeding a picket or other demonstration or protest” in public a Class A misdemeanor with a minimum fine of $500.
VII. Amendments to the Illinois Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act (VESSA).
Recent amendments to VESSA provide additional entitlements to time off from work for employees who are victims themselves, or who have family members who are victims of violent crimes. Specifically, the Act applies to employees who are victims of “domestic violence, sexual violence, gender violence, or any other crime of violence” and expands the existing reasons to take leave including: (i) attending the funeral or alternative to a funeral or wake of a family or household member who is killed in a crime of violence; (ii) making arrangements necessitated by the death of a family or household member who is killed in a crime of violence; and (iii) grieving the death of a family or household member who is killed in a crime of violence.
The Act requires employees to provide certification to their employers, such as a death certificate, obituary, sworn statement, etc. Once the certification is complete, the amount of VESSA leave an employee is entitled to depends on the size of the employer:
- An employee working for an employer with up to 14 employees is entitled to a total of four work weeks of leave during any 12-month period.
- An employee working for an employer with at least 15, but not more than 49, employees is entitled to a total of eight workweeks of leave during any 12-month period.
- An employee working for an employer with at least 50 employees is entitled to a total of 12 work weeks of leave during any 12-month period.
This time off can be take at once or in pieces and must be taken within 60 days after the date on which the employee receives notice of the death of the victim. Employers should also consider the overlap and coordination of unpaid leave under the Illinois Family Bereavement Leave Act.
VIII. Amendments to Chicago’s “Ban the Box’ Ordinance.
While Chicago has maintained a ban-the-box ordinance for almost a decade, the most recent amendments further provides protections to Chicago workers. Under the amendments, all Chicago employers are now not allowed to take adverse employment actions against employees on the basis of their criminal history without performing an individualized analysis/assessment of that employee. Meaning, unless the employee’s criminal history relates to their job duties or there is risk of harm to property or other persons, Chicago employers cannot reject job applicants or make other employment decisions based upon the individual’s criminal history.
IX. Passing of the Illinois Transportation Benefits Program Act: Illinois Now Mandates A Certain Commuter Benefit For Certain Employers and Employees.
Effective January 1, 2024, certain Illinois employers who match certain criteria will be required to offer certain employees a transportation benefits program to help provide commuting expenses on a pre-tax basis. Employees covered by the Act include any person who performs at least 35 hours of worker per week for compensation on a full-time basis and have worked for the employer for a minimum of 120 days. These individuals must be offered the pre-tax commuter benefit. Employers covered by the Act include any employer who employees 50 or more covered employees in certain Illinois counties (most counties) and is located within one mile of fixed-route transit service.
The benefit employers must provide must give employees the opportunity to elect pre-tax salary deductions that can be used for transit expenses, including for example, tokens, fare cards, vouchers, or similar items that entitle a person to transportation on public transit.
X. New Employment Notice Requirements
The Illinois General Assembly amended several notice provisions under Illinois law, specifically, the Illinois Minimum Wage Law, Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003, the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, and the Illinois Child Labor Law. Beginning on January 1, 2024, Illinois employers must distribute notices to qualifying remote employees (such as employees who work remotely or travel for work) by email or “conspicuous posting on the employer’s website or intranet site, if such site is regularly used by the employer to communicate work-related information to employees.” Illinois employers cannot rely on employment posters typically placed in an open area at the employers’ physical site to comply with its notice requirements.
XI. Bonus Prep for 2025: Illinois Pay Transparency Act (Amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act).
The new Illinois statute, which goes into effect on January 1, 2025, requires Illinois employers with at least 15 employees to include in job postings the “pay scale and benefits” meaning “the wage or salary, or wage or salary range, and a general description of the benefits and other compensation… that the employer reasonably expects in good faith to offer for the position.” Benefits are defined to include bonuses, stock options, and other compensation.
The law will apply to positions that “will be physically performed, at least in part, in Illinois” or will be performed outside the state but the “employee reports to a supervisor, office, or other work site in Illinois.” Pay scales are to be set by reference to “any applicable pay scale, the previously determined range for the position, the previously determined range for the position, the actual range of others currently holding equivalent positions, or the budgeted amount for the position, as applicable.” The law will not require employers to make a job posting nor will it prohibit employers from asking job applicants about their wage or salary expectations for the job.
While the statute does not go into effect until 2025, Illinois employers may want to consider reviewing their internal and external job posting policies and their arrangements with third parties that make postings on their behalf in light of the new law’s upcoming requirements.
To learn more about any of the Illinois state law topics above and how it impacts your business or any other general questions please contact the authors of this article, or your Dykema relationship attorney.