On August 11, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed into law a key amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003, which will mandate that job postings for private and public employers include a hyperlinked and publicly-viewable webpage that includes pay scale and benefit information for each posted position. The amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act also mandates that employers shall post or announce all opportunities for promotion to current employees no later than 14 days after the employer makes an external job posting for the position. The law will take effect January 1, 2025.
What will be required to be disclosed? The amendment defines “pay scale and benefits” as the wage or salary, or the wage or salary range, including bonuses, stock options, and other incentives the employer expects to offer for the position. The pay scale may be determined by a pay scale, the previously determined range for the position, the actual range of others holding the equivalent position(s), or the budgeted amount for the position.
To whom will the law apply? The amendment applies to private and public employers with at least 15 employees. Vis-à-vis public employers, the amendment applies to state and local governments and school districts. Exempted from the amendment are positions in the State of Illinois workforce that are designated as exempt from competitive selection.
Notably, the amendment applies with equal force to third party publishers of job postings (including, presumably, online job posting sites such as LinkedIn or Indeed). The amendment makes the third-party publishers liable for failure to publish such pay scale and benefit information unless the third-party can show that the employer did not provide such pay scale and benefit information.
What are the document retention requirements? The amendment mandates that the employer preserve the job postings and related pay scale and benefits for each posted position for five years.
How will the amendment be enforced? The Illinois Department of Labor may investigate the failure to post the pay scale and benefit information, or a person claiming to be aggrieved may submit a complaint. In the event of a finding of violation of the amendment, the Department of Labor may issue graduated penalties for first, second and third offenses of up to $10,000 per offense. An ”offense” consists of a single job posting or a batch of postings for the same position. Once an employer incurs three violations, the employer may be fined up to $10,000 per violation with no cure period for the following five years, with the five-year period re-starting with every new violation.
The requirement of pay scale publication for new postings applies to job postings posted after the effective date of the amendment, August 11, 2023.
For more information regarding this amendment, please contact Johnson & Bell Shareholders Caroline K. Vickrey or Garrett L. Boehm, Jr.
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