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September 10, 2024
Another Update: On September 30, 2025, Judge Franklin U. Valderrama of the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a lawsuit challenging Illinois’s Worker Freedom of Speech Act, The Illinois Policy Institute and the Technology & Manufacturing Association brought the lawsuit against Illinois Department of Labor Director Jane R. Flanagan, alleging that the Act was unconstitutional. The court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the dispute, based on the doctrine of sovereign immunity. It further held that Ms. Flanagan is not a proper defendant because her role is “ministerial or administrative.” The court also noted that the plaintiffs presented “no evidence that the Act has had any effect on their operations.”
Update: In the article below, we discussed Illinois’s Worker Freedom of Speech Act (WFOS), which was signed into law in August 2024 and became effective on January 1, 2025. The law prohibits employers from holding “captive audience” (mandatory, employer-sponsored) meetings if they relate to political or religious matters. Soon after the law’s enactment, the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) and The Technology & Manufacturing Association (TMA) filed a lawsuit to strike it down. In a brief filed on January 8, 2025, the IPI and TMA compared WFOS to Florida’s Individual Freedom Act, whose provisions on diversity training were struck down in July 2024. The IPI and TMA argued that – like Florida’s Individual Freedom Act – WFOS prohibits mandatory employee meetings only when those meetings include speech endorsing certain ideas. Thus, they argue, it is an unlawful regulation of speech. The IPI and TMA’s request for an injunction, as well as Illinois’s motion to dismiss the case, remain pending. We will continue to follow the case – Illinois Policy Institute, et al. v. Flanagan, No. 1:24-cv-06976 (N.D.Ill.).
In August 2024, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law a number of employment changes that will become effective in January 2025 or January 2026. We outline the many changes in our article below. Last week, we also reported on Illinois’s amendments to its Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which became effective upon their passing on August 2, 2024.
Employers: Take note of these changes, update your policies and practices as necessary, and contact counsel with questions.
Changes Effective January 1, 2025
Changes Effective January 1, 2026
House Bill 3773 amends the Act to prohibit employers from using artificial intelligence (AI) that has the effect of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of protected classes under the Act or to use zip codes as a proxy for protected classes under the Act with respect to “recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, or the terms, privileges, or conditions of employment.” It also prohibits employers from using AI for such decisions without providing notice to employees or applicants about its use.
Senate Bill 3646 repeals Illinois’s child labor law and replaces it with the Child Labor Law of 2024 (Child Labor Law). Provisions related to minors featured in vlogs (content shared on an online platform in exchange for compensation) and trust funds took effect on July 1, 2024. All other provisions become effective on January 1, 2025. Among many other things, the Child Labor Law identifies the workplaces and industries in which minors cannot work; specifies the hours and times of day that minors of certain ages can work; and requires employers of minors to ensure that the minor has a valid employment certificate.
House Bill 5561 amends the Illinois Whistleblower Act (Whistleblower Act) to add a “good faith” component to the statute. Specifically, the Whistleblower Act now prohibits employers from taking retaliatory action against an employee who discloses or threatens to disclose information about an employer’s activities, policies, or practices, or refuses to participate in them, when the employee has a good faith belief that such activities, policies, or practices violate a law, rule, or regulation or poses a danger to employees, public health, or safety. The amendments also add some definitions to the Whistleblower Act.
Senate Bill 3208 amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (WPCL) to require employers to issue to employees a pay stub each payday for each pay period. Previously, the WPCL required employers to issue only an itemized statement of deductions from employees’ wages.
“Pay stub” is defined in the statute as an itemized statement or statements reflecting an employee’s hours worked, rate of pay, overtime pay and overtime hours worked, gross wages earned, deductions made from the employee’s wages, and the total of wages and deductions year to date.
The WPCL now further requires employers to maintain copies of pay stubs for at least three years and to supply them to current or former employees upon request.
Violators of these new provisions of the WPCL will be subject to a civil penalty up to $500 per violation.
House Bill 3763 amends the Illinois Personnel Record Review Act (Personnel Record Act). The amendments expand employees’ rights to inspect and copy their employment records, when they so request with certain enumerated detail in writing up to two times per calendar year.
The employment records to which an employee is entitled now include records regarding benefits; any contracts or agreements that the employer contends are legally binding on the employee; any employee handbooks that the employer made available to the employee or that the employee acknowledged receiving; and any written employer policies or procedures to which the employer contends the employee was subject concerning qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, discharge or other disciplinary action.
Section 10 of the Personnel Record Act identifies the records to which employees are not entitled and has been amended to include “an employer’s trade secrets, client lists, sales, projections, and financial data.”
Employers may not charge employees a fee for the records that exceeds the actual cost of duplicating them.
Employees are now permitted to file an action in court if their complaint to the Illinois Department of Labor has not been resolved within 180 calendar days.
Senate Bill 3649, entitled the Worker Freedom of Speech Act (WFOS), prohibits “captive audience” meetings if they relate to political or religious matters. Specifically, WFOS prohibits employers from coercing employees into attending or participating, or from retaliating or threatening retaliation against employees for refusing to attend or participate, in meetings about the employer’s religious or political opinions. The WFOS also prohibits employers from actual or threatened retaliation for refusing to listen to or receive or participate in communications about such opinions.
“Political matters” are matters relating to elections for political office, political parties, proposals to change legislation, proposals to change regulations, proposals to change public policy, and the decision to join or support any political party or political, civic, community, fraternal, or labor organization. “Religious matters” are matters relating to religious belief, affiliation, and practice and the decision to join or support any religious organization or association.
Illinois amended the Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act (Right to Privacy Act) last year to establish a certain process that employers must follow if they wish to take adverse action (like termination of employment) against an employee after receiving notice from an employment eligibility verification system (like the federal E-Verify system) of a discrepancy between the employee’s name and social security number.
Last year’s amendment also granted certain rights and protections to employees in those situations. Senate Bill 0508 amends the Right to Privacy Act to broaden the employee protections. It prevents Illinois employers from imposing on employees any work authorization verification requirements that are greater than the requirements under federal law. It requires employers to provide notice to employees of any identified discrepancy between name and social security number; notice of any inspections of I-9 Employment Eligibility Verifications forms; and notice of any audit or documentation claiming that the employee is not authorized to work in the United States, so that employees may, among other things, seek representation in connection with any employer action based on the alleged discrepancy.
House Bill 4719 amends the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program Act (SPA). Under the SPA, Illinois employers with at least five employees, that have been in business for two or more years, and that do not offer a qualified retirement plan, must either begin offering a qualified plan or automatically enroll their employees into the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program. Secure Choice is a program administered by the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Board for the purpose of providing a retirement savings option to private-sector employees in Illinois who lack access to an employer-sponsored plan.
The amendments (1) provide that participating employers may (rather than shall) designate an open enrollment period during which employees who previously opted out of the Secure Choice Savings Program may enroll in the Program; (2) provide that an employer shall retain the option at all times to set up a qualified retirement plan (rather than any type of employer-sponsored retirement plan); and (3) remove from a list of qualified retirement plans the option to offer an automatic enrollment payroll deduction IRA.
The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Illinois, Pennsylvania, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
