Employment law in Illinois is constantly evolving. Now is the time to review and update your employee handbooks to stay compliant heading into the new year. Below are some key legal developments that employers should be aware of:<\/p>\n
New Law<\/p>\n
Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act\u00a0<\/strong> Employers with 16\u201350 employees<\/strong> must provide up to 10 days of unpaid, job-protected leave<\/strong> for time their employees spend with their newborn in the NICU.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Employers with 51+ employees<\/strong> must provide up to 20 days of unpaid leave.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n This leave is in addition to<\/strong> leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Employers may not<\/strong> require employees to use paid leave.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Amendments to Existing Laws<\/p>\n Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act\u00a0<\/strong> Employers must provide paid breaks<\/strong> for nursing employees to express breast milk for up to one year<\/strong> after childbirth.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Employers cannot require employees to use paid leave or reduce their pay during these breaks.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Employee Blood and Organ Donation Leave Act\u00a0<\/strong> Employees are entitled to up to 10 days<\/strong> of leave per 12-month period for organ donation; unclear as to whether the leave time must be paid.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Both full-time and part-time employees<\/strong> must be allowed one hour of paid leave every 56 days to donate blood<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Applies to employers with 51+ employees.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Victims\u2019 Economic Security and Safety Act\u00a0<\/strong> Employers may not take adverse action<\/strong> against employees who use work-issued devices to document incidents of domestic, sexual, gender-based violence or other violent crimes committed against themselves or their family members.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Employers must provide access to any media (photos, videos, audio) recorded on those devices related to such incidents.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Workplace Transparency Act\u00a0<\/strong> Severance and other employment agreements cannot unilaterally<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Restrict employee\u2019s rights to engage in concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Shorten statutory deadlines or require non-Illinois law\/venue for Illinois employee claims<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Assert that confidentiality is preferred by the employee<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n Consideration<\/strong> is now required for confidentiality provisions, separate<\/strong> from consideration provided for release provisions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Illinois Human Rights Act\u00a0<\/strong> The Department may decline to hold a fact-finding conference in employment-related complaints.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Penalties are increased for repeat violations \u2014 up to $70,000<\/strong> for two or more within seven years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Illinois Human Rights Act (Use of AI)<\/strong> Prohibits AI use in connection with recruitment, hiring, promotion, discharge, tenure, or other terms and conditions of employment to discriminate based on an individual\u2019s protected class or zip code.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Employer must notify employee when AI is used in connection with employment decisions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n ICYMI: Recent Laws Enacted in 2025<\/p>\n Military Leave Act<\/strong>\u00a0 Formerly the Family Military Leave Act.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Requires up to 8 hours of paid leave per month<\/strong>, and up to 40 hours per year<\/strong>, for employees participating in military funeral honors.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \u00a0Applies to employers with 51+ employees<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Equal Pay Act\u00a0<\/strong> Wage Payment and Collection Act\u00a0<\/strong> Illinois Department of Labor wage claim decisions become collectible if unpaid within 35 days<\/strong> after judicial review or the expiration of the appeal window.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Applies to pending claims<\/strong> as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Stalking No Contact Order Act<\/strong>\u00a0 Expands the definition of stalking to include harassment that is unreasonable and causes emotional distress.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Contacting or surveilling an employee at work<\/strong> is presumed to cause such distress.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Workers\u2019 Rights and Worker Safety Act\u00a0<\/strong> Prohibits Illinois agencies from weakening state rules below the level of federal wage\/hour and mine safety laws as of April 28, 2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Designed to maintain robust worker protections in the face of potential federal rollbacks.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Next Steps:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ensure your employment policies and agreements reflect these updates. Consider a year-end compliance review to reduce legal risk in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Employment law in Illinois is constantly evolving. Now is the time to review and update your employee handbooks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[79,18,19,17,227],"class_list":{"0":"post-124053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-jobs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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