Bill Text: IL HB2488 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Amends the Equal Pay Act of 2003. Removes references to the federal Annual Employer Information Report. Amends the Prevailing Wage Act. Changes specified references to the Office of Apprenticeship within the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 14)

Status: (Passed) 2025-06-30 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 104-0017 [HB2488 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-HB2488-Enrolled.html

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AN ACT concerning employment.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Equal Pay Act of 2003 is amended by changing
Section 11 as follows:
(820 ILCS 112/11)
Sec. 11. Equal pay registration certificate requirements;
application. For the purposes of this Section 11 only,
"business" means any private employer who has 100 or more
employees in the State of Illinois and is required to file an
Annual Employer Information Report EEO-1 with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, but does not include the
State of Illinois or any political subdivision, municipal
corporation, or other governmental unit or agency.
(a) A business must obtain an equal pay registration
certificate from the Department.
(b) Any business subject to the requirements of this
Section that is authorized to transact business in this State
on March 23, 2021 shall submit an application to obtain an
equal pay registration certificate, between March 24, 2022 and
March 23, 2024, and must recertify every 2 years thereafter.
Any business subject to the requirements of this Section that
is authorized to transact business in this State after March

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23, 2021 must submit an application to obtain an equal pay
registration certificate within 3 years of commencing business
operations, but not before January 1, 2024, and must recertify
every 2 years thereafter. The Department shall collect contact
information from each business subject to this Section. The
Department shall assign each business a date by which it must
submit an application to obtain an equal pay registration
certificate. The business shall recertify every 2 years at a
date to be determined by the Department. When a business
receives a notice from the Department to recertify for its
equal pay registration certificate, if the business has fewer
than 100 employees, the business must certify in writing to
the Department that it is exempt from this Section. Any new
business that is subject to this Section and authorized to
conduct business in this State, after the effective date of
this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly, shall
submit its contact information to the Department by January 1
of the following year and shall be assigned a date by which it
must submit an application to obtain an equal pay registration
certificate. The Department's failure to assign a business a
registration date does not exempt the business from compliance
with this Section. The failure of the Department to notify a
business of its recertification deadline may be a mitigating
factor when making a determination of a violation of this
Section.
(c) Application.

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(1) A business shall apply for an equal pay
registration certificate by paying a $150 filing fee and
submitting wage records and an equal pay compliance
statement to the Director as follows:
(A) Wage Records. Any business that is subject to
this Section required to file an annual Employer
Information Report EEO-1 with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission must submit to the Director a
list of all employees during the past calendar year,
separated by gender and the race and ethnicity
categories, as reported in the business's most
recently filed Employer Information Report EEO-1, and
the county in which the employee works, the date the
employee started working for the business, any other
information the Department deems necessary to
determine if pay equity exists among employees, and
report the total wages as defined by Section 2 of the
Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act paid to each
employee during the past calendar year, rounded to the
nearest $100, to the Director.
(B) Equal Pay Compliance Statement. The business
must submit a statement signed by a corporate officer,
legal counsel, or authorized agent of the business
certifying:
(i) that the business is in compliance with
this Act and other relevant laws, including but

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not limited to: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Illinois
Human Rights Act, and the Equal Wage Act;
(ii) that the average compensation for its
female and minority employees is not consistently
below the average compensation for its male and
non-minority employees within each job category of
the major job categories in the Employer
Information Report EEO-1 for which an employee is
expected to perform work, taking into account
factors such as length of service, requirements of
specific jobs, experience, skill, effort,
responsibility, working conditions of the job,
education or training, job location, use of a
collective bargaining agreement, or other
mitigating factors; as used in this subparagraph,
"job category" means one of the following job
categories: executive/senior-level officials and
managers, first/mid-level officials and managers,
professionals, technicians, sales workers,
administrative support workers, craft workers,
operatives, laborers and helpers, and service
workers; as used in this subparagraph, "minority"
has the meaning ascribed to that term in paragraph
(1) of subsection (A) of Section 2 of the Business
Enterprise for Minorities, Women, and Persons with

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Disabilities Act; and as used in this
subparagraph, "compensation" means remuneration or
compensation an employee receives in return for
services rendered to an employer, including hourly
wages, overtime wages, commissions, piece rate
work, salary, bonuses, or any other basis of
calculation for services performed;
(iii) that the business does not restrict
employees of one sex to certain job
classifications, and makes retention and promotion
decisions without regard to sex;
(iv) that wage and benefit disparities are
corrected when identified to ensure compliance
with the Acts cited in item (i);
(v) how often wages and benefits are
evaluated; and
(vi) the approach the business takes in
determining what level of wages and benefits to
pay its employees; acceptable approaches include,
but are not limited to, a wage and salary survey.
(C) Filing fee. The business shall pay to the
Department a filing fee of $150. Proceeds from the
fees collected under this Section shall be deposited
into the Equal Pay Fund, a special fund created in the
State treasury.
(2) Receipt of the equal pay compliance application

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and statement by the Director does not establish
compliance with the Acts set forth in item (i) of
subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of this subsection (c).
(3) A business that has employees in multiple
locations or facilities in Illinois shall submit a single
application to the Department regarding all of its
operations in Illinois.
(d) Issuance or rejection of registration certificate.
After January 1, 2022, the Director must issue an equal pay
registration certificate, or a statement of why the
application was rejected, within 45 calendar days of receipt
of the application. Applicants shall have the opportunity to
cure any deficiencies in its application that led to the
rejection, and re-submit the revised application to the
Department within 30 calendar days of receiving a rejection.
Applicants shall have the ability to appeal rejected
applications. An application may be rejected only if it does
not comply with the requirements of subsection (c), or the
business is otherwise found to be in violation of this Act. The
receipt of an application by the Department, or the issuance
of a registration certificate by the Department, shall not
establish compliance with the Equal Pay Act of 2003 as to all
Sections except Section 11. The issuance of a registration
certificate shall not be a defense against any Equal Pay Act
violation found by the Department, nor a basis for mitigation
of damages.

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(e) Revocation of registration certificate. An equal pay
registration certificate for a business may be suspended or
revoked by the Director when the business fails to make a good
faith effort to comply with the Acts identified in item (i) of
subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subsection (c), fails to
make a good faith effort to comply with this Section, or has
multiple violations of this Section or the Acts identified in
item (i) of subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subsection
(c). Prior to suspending or revoking a registration
certificate, the Director must first have sought to conciliate
with the business regarding wages and benefits due to
employees.
Consistent with Section 25, prior to or in connection with
the suspension or revocation of an equal pay registration
certificate, the Director, or his or her authorized
representative, may interview workers, administer oaths, take
or cause to be taken the depositions of witnesses, and require
by subpoena the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the
production of personnel and compensation information relative
to the matter under investigation, hearing or a
department-initiated audit.
Neither the Department nor the Director shall be held
liable for good faith errors in issuing, denying, suspending
or revoking certificates.
(f) Administrative review. A business may obtain an
administrative hearing in accordance with the Illinois

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Administrative Procedure Act before the suspension or
revocation of its certificate or imposition of civil penalties
as provided by subsection (i) is effective by filing a written
request for hearing within 20 calendar days after service of
notice by the Director.
(g) Technical assistance. The Director must provide
technical assistance to any business that requests assistance
regarding this Section.
(h) Access to data.
(1) Any individually identifiable information
submitted to the Director within or related to an equal
pay registration application or otherwise provided by an
employer in its equal pay compliance statement under
subsection (c) shall be considered confidential
information and not subject to disclosure pursuant to the
Illinois Freedom of Information Act. As used in this
Section, "individually identifiable information" means
data submitted pursuant to this Section that is associated
with a specific person or business. Aggregate data or
reports that are reasonably calculated to prevent the
association of any data with any individual business or
person are not confidential information. Aggregate data
shall include the job category and the average hourly wage
by county for each gender, race, and ethnicity category on
the registration certificate applications. The Department
of Labor may compile aggregate data from registration

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certificate applications.
(2) The Director's decision to issue, not issue,
revoke, or suspend an equal pay registration certificate
is public information.
(3) Notwithstanding this subsection (h), a current
employee of a covered business may request anonymized data
regarding their job classification or title and the pay
for that classification. No individually identifiable
information may be provided to an employee making a
request under this paragraph.
(4) Notwithstanding this subsection (h), the
Department may share data and identifiable information
with the Department of Human Rights, pursuant to its
enforcement of Article 2 of the Illinois Human Rights Act,
or the Office of the Attorney General, pursuant to its
enforcement of Section 10-104 of the Illinois Human Rights
Act.
(5) Any Department employee who willfully and
knowingly divulges, except in accordance with a proper
judicial order or otherwise provided by law, confidential
information received by the Department from any business
pursuant to this Act shall be deemed to have violated the
State Officials and Employees Ethics Act and be subject to
the penalties established under subsections (e) and (f) of
Section 50-5 of that Act after investigation and
opportunity for hearing before the Executive Ethics

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Commission in accordance with Section 20-50 of that Act.
(i) Penalty. Falsification or misrepresentation of
information on an application submitted to the Department
shall constitute a violation of this Act and the Department
may seek to suspend or revoke an equal pay registration
certificate or impose civil penalties as provided under
subsection (c) of Section 30.
(Source: P.A. 102-36, eff. 6-25-21; 102-705, eff. 4-22-22;
103-201, eff. 1-1-24.)
Section 10. The Prevailing Wage Act is amended by changing
Section 2 as follows:
(820 ILCS 130/2)
Sec. 2. This Act applies to the wages of laborers,
mechanics and other workers employed in any public works, as
hereinafter defined, by any public body and to anyone under
contracts for public works. This includes any maintenance,
repair, assembly, or disassembly work performed on equipment
whether owned, leased, or rented.
As used in this Act, unless the context indicates
otherwise:
"Public works" means all fixed works constructed or
demolished by any public body, or paid for wholly or in part
out of public funds. "Public works" as defined herein includes
all projects financed in whole or in part with bonds, grants,

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loans, or other funds made available by or through the State or
any of its political subdivisions, including but not limited
to: bonds issued under the Industrial Project Revenue Bond Act
(Article 11, Division 74 of the Illinois Municipal Code), the
Industrial Building Revenue Bond Act, the Illinois Finance
Authority Act, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Act,
or the Build Illinois Bond Act; loans or other funds made
available pursuant to the Build Illinois Act; loans or other
funds made available pursuant to the Riverfront Development
Fund under Section 10-15 of the River Edge Redevelopment Zone
Act; or funds from the Fund for Illinois' Future under Section
6z-47 of the State Finance Act, funds for school construction
under Section 5 of the General Obligation Bond Act, funds
authorized under Section 3 of the School Construction Bond
Act, funds for school infrastructure under Section 6z-45 of
the State Finance Act, and funds for transportation purposes
under Section 4 of the General Obligation Bond Act. "Public
works" also includes (i) all projects financed in whole or in
part with funds from the Environmental Protection Agency under
the Illinois Renewable Fuels Development Program Act for which
there is no project labor agreement; (ii) all work performed
pursuant to a public private agreement under the Public
Private Agreements for the Illiana Expressway Act or the
Public-Private Agreements for the South Suburban Airport Act;
(iii) all projects undertaken under a public-private agreement
under the Public-Private Partnerships for Transportation Act

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or the Department of Natural Resources World Shooting and
Recreational Complex Act; and (iv) all transportation
facilities undertaken under a design-build contract or a
Construction Manager/General Contractor contract under the
Innovations for Transportation Infrastructure Act. "Public
works" also includes all projects at leased facility property
used for airport purposes under Section 35 of the Local
Government Facility Lease Act. "Public works" also includes
the construction of a new wind power facility by a business
designated as a High Impact Business under Section
5.5(a)(3)(E) of the Illinois Enterprise Zone Act, the
construction of a new utility-scale solar power facility by a
business designated as a High Impact Business under Section
5.5(a)(3)(E-5) of the Illinois Enterprise Zone Act, the
construction of a new battery energy storage solution facility
by a business designated as a High Impact Business under
Section 5.5(a)(3)(I) of the Illinois Enterprise Zone Act, and
the construction of a high voltage direct current converter
station by a business designated as a High Impact Business
under Section 5.5(a)(3)(J) of the Illinois Enterprise Zone
Act. "Public works" also includes electric vehicle charging
station projects financed pursuant to the Electric Vehicle Act
and renewable energy projects required to pay the prevailing
wage pursuant to the Illinois Power Agency Act. "Public works"
also includes power washing projects by a public body or paid
for wholly or in part out of public funds in which steam or

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pressurized water, with or without added abrasives or
chemicals, is used to remove paint or other coatings, oils or
grease, corrosion, or debris from a surface or to prepare a
surface for a coating. "Public works" also includes all
electric transmission systems projects subject to the Electric
Transmission Systems Construction Standards Act. "Public
works" does not include work done directly by any public
utility company, whether or not done under public supervision
or direction, or paid for wholly or in part out of public
funds. "Public works" also includes construction projects
performed by a third party contracted by any public utility,
as described in subsection (a) of Section 2.1, in public
rights-of-way, as defined in Section 21-201 of the Public
Utilities Act, whether or not done under public supervision or
direction, or paid for wholly or in part out of public funds.
"Public works" also includes construction projects that exceed
15 aggregate miles of new fiber optic cable, performed by a
third party contracted by any public utility, as described in
subsection (b) of Section 2.1, in public rights-of-way, as
defined in Section 21-201 of the Public Utilities Act, whether
or not done under public supervision or direction, or paid for
wholly or in part out of public funds. "Public works" also
includes any corrective action performed pursuant to Title XVI
of the Environmental Protection Act for which payment from the
Underground Storage Tank Fund is requested. "Public works"
also includes all construction projects involving fixtures or

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permanent attachments affixed to light poles that are owned by
a public body, including street light poles, traffic light
poles, and other lighting fixtures, whether or not done under
public supervision or direction, or paid for wholly or in part
out of public funds, unless the project is performed by
employees employed directly by the public body. "Public works"
also includes work performed subject to the Mechanical
Insulation Energy and Safety Assessment Act. "Public works"
also includes the removal, hauling, and transportation of
biosolids, lime sludge, and lime residue from a water
treatment plant or facility and the disposal of biosolids,
lime sludge, and lime residue removed from a water treatment
plant or facility at a landfill. "Public works" does not
include projects undertaken by the owner at an owner-occupied
single-family residence or at an owner-occupied unit of a
multi-family residence. "Public works" does not include work
performed for soil and water conservation purposes on
agricultural lands, whether or not done under public
supervision or paid for wholly or in part out of public funds,
done directly by an owner or person who has legal control of
those lands.
"Construction" means all work on public works involving
laborers, workers or mechanics. This includes any maintenance,
repair, assembly, or disassembly work performed on equipment
whether owned, leased, or rented.
"Locality" means the county where the physical work upon

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public works is performed, except (1) that if there is not
available in the county a sufficient number of competent
skilled laborers, workers and mechanics to construct the
public works efficiently and properly, "locality" includes any
other county nearest the one in which the work or construction
is to be performed and from which such persons may be obtained
in sufficient numbers to perform the work and (2) that, with
respect to contracts for highway work with the Department of
Transportation of this State, "locality" may at the discretion
of the Secretary of the Department of Transportation be
construed to include two or more adjacent counties from which
workers may be accessible for work on such construction.
"Public body" means the State or any officer, board or
commission of the State or any political subdivision or
department thereof, or any institution supported in whole or
in part by public funds, and includes every county, city,
town, village, township, school district, irrigation, utility,
reclamation improvement or other district and every other
political subdivision, district or municipality of the state
whether such political subdivision, municipality or district
operates under a special charter or not.
"Labor organization" means an organization that is the
exclusive representative of an employer's employees recognized
or certified pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act.
The terms "general prevailing rate of hourly wages",
"general prevailing rate of wages" or "prevailing rate of

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wages" when used in this Act mean the hourly cash wages plus
full journeyman annualized fringe benefits for training and
apprenticeship programs registered with approved by the Office
of Apprenticeship within the U.S. Department of Labor's
Employment and Training Administration with full journeymen
annualized fringe benefits for U.S. Department of Labor,
Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, health and welfare,
insurance, vacations and pensions paid generally, in the
locality in which the work is being performed, to employees
engaged in work of a similar character on public works.
(Source: P.A. 102-9, eff. 1-1-22; 102-444, eff. 8-20-21;
102-673, eff. 11-30-21; 102-813, eff. 5-13-22; 102-1094, eff.
6-15-22; 103-8, eff. 6-7-23; 103-327, eff. 1-1-24; 103-346,
eff. 1-1-24; 103-359, eff. 7-28-23; 103-447, eff. 8-4-23;
103-605, eff. 7-1-24; 103-1066, eff. 2-20-25.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.