It is a busy time for employment-related legal updates in Illinois, with Governor J.B. Pritzker recently approving various laws that expand employee protections and add new obligations for employers.
This Client Alert is part of a seven-part series discussing laws Illinois employers need to consider as we move toward 2025. Those laws include:
- amendments to the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, which modify and build on 2023 amendments regarding equal pay and benefits for temporary workers (effective 8/9/24) (Client Alert here);
- amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act expanding the statute of limitations to 2 years and adding new protected classes (effective 1/1/25) (the following alert);
- amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibit the discriminatory use of artificial intelligence and require employer notice of AI use in the workplace (effective 1/1/26) (the following alert);
- amendments to the Illinois Equal Pay Act governing pay transparency in job postings (effective 1/1/25) (Client Alert here);
- amendments to the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, which expand pay stub requirements (effective 1/1/25);
- expanded scope of documents and protections under the Illinois Personnel Records Review Act (effective 1/1/25);
- a new Illinois Worker Freedom of Speech Act, which protects employees who decline to participate in certain employer-sponsored meetings on religious or political matters (effective 1/1/25) (Client Alert here);
- amendments to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which limit damages for BIPA violations, among other things (effective 8/2/24) (Client Alert here); and
- amendments to the Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, which regulate employer use of E-Verify and similar systems (effective 1/1/25).
Stay tuned as other alerts are released in the coming weeks regarding the above updates.
Illinois Human Rights Act Amendments
Expanding the Statute of Limitations To 2 Years
Effective January 1, 2025, Public Act 103-0973 amends the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) to extend the time in which employees must file a charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) from 300 days to 2 years. This extension of the limitations period applies only to charges filed with the IDHR alleging an IHRA violation. It does not extend the time in which employees must file a charge alleging violations of federal or local laws, nor does it extend the time in which employees must file a charge with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (which remains 300 days) or any local fair employment practices agencies.
“Family Responsibilities” Added As A Protected Class
Effective January 1, 2025, Public Act 103-0797 amends the IHRA to add “family responsibilities” to its list of protected classes. This means that along with other characteristics protected under the IHRA (such as race, sex, age, national origin, and many others), employees working in Illinois will be protected from discrimination or harassment based on their family responsibilities. For purposes of this amendment, “family responsibilities” is defined as “an employee’s actual or perceived provision of personal care to a family member.”
The terms “personal care” and “family member” are defined by incorporating the definitions of these phrases from the Illinois Employee Sick Leave Act. Accordingly, “family member” includes an employee’s child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent. “Personal care” includes “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.” Personal care also includes “being physically present to provide emotional support to a covered family member with a serious health condition who is receiving inpatient or home care.”
Notably, this amendment does not explicitly require Illinois employers to grant leave or other accommodations to employees who need to take leave from work to perform qualifying family responsibilities; however, other laws (such as the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)) may entitle employees to job-protected leave. In addition, this change does not require employers to modify their existing paid sick leave, vacation, PTO, or attendance policies. However, employers with any Illinois-based employees should confirm their current policies comply with the paid leave and paid sick leave laws that went into effect in Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago during 2024.
“Reproductive Health Decisions” Added As A Protected Class
Also effective January 1, 2025, Public Act 103-0785 amends the IHRA to prohibit discrimination against employees based on their “reproductive health decisions.” “Reproductive health decisions” is defined as “a person’s decisions regarding the person’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.” Similar to the “family responsibilities” addition, this amendment does not explicitly impose any new leave or accommodation requirements on employers.
Artificial Intelligence Protections and Employer Notice Requirements
In 2020, Illinois became one of the first states to address the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace by passing the Illinois Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, which imposes obligations on employers that use AI to analyze video interviews recorded by job applicants. Effective January 1, 2026, Public Act 103-0804 further establishes the state’s lead with respect to regulating AI use in the workplace by amending the IHRA to specifically prohibit the discriminatory use of AI in connection with employment decisions and requiring employers to notify employees when AI is being used for employment-related reasons. Significantly, the law:
- Expressly prohibits employers from using AI (including generative AI) with respect to nearly any term, privilege, or condition of employment if such use has the “effect” of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of any characteristic protected by the IHRA.
- Requires employers to provide notice to employees if the employer is using AI (including generative AI) for any of the following purposes: “recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, or the terms, privileges, or conditions of employment.”
- Prohibits employers from using zip codes as a proxy for any characteristic protected by the IHRA;
- Broadly defines “artificial intelligence” as “a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments.”
- The definition of AI expressly includes “generative artificial intelligence,” which is separately defined as “an automated computing system that, when prompted with human prompts, descriptions, or queries, can produce outputs that simulate human-produced content, including, but not limited to the following: (1) textual outputs, such as short answers, essays, poetry, or longer compositions or answers; (2) image outputs, such as fine art, photographs, conceptual art, diagrams, and other images; (3) multimedia outputs, such as audio or video in the form of compositions, songs, or short-form or long-form audio or video; and (4) other content that would be otherwise produced by human means.”
The AI amendments require the Illinois Department of Human Rights to adopt rules regarding the circumstances and conditions that require employer notice to employees, the time period for providing notice, and the means for providing notice. Unlike the other IHRA amendments described above and many of the other employment laws in this series, employers will have more than a year to prepare for these changes related to AI, as they do not go into effect until January 1, 2026.
Takeaways
We recommend employers begin reviewing their existing policies and consult their employment counsel to ensure compliance with these changes.
Please feel free to reach out to your MBF attorney to discuss further.