The City of Chicago has amended its Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (the “Ordinance”), providing new reasons for taking paid sick leave under the Ordinance, and adding a new remedy for Chicago employees alleging wage theft against their employers (collectively, the “Amendments”). The Amendments are in full effect as of August 1, 2021, and employers should carefully review their policies and practices to ensure compliance. For additional background on the Ordinance, please refer to BCLP’s earlier post here.

New Cause of Action for Wage Theft

The Amendments create a new cause of action for wage theft. The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (“IWPCA”) already prohibited wage theft, and employees in Chicago already had the right to bring claims for untimely or incomplete payment of wages in state court. The Amendments give “Covered Employees” in Chicago a new remedy separate and apart from the IWPCA. Covered Employees are defined as those employees who work at least two (2) hours during any two-week time period in the City of Chicago, including time travelling for deliveries or sales calls but not including uncompensated commuting time.

Now, Covered Employees may file a claim of wage theft with the Chicago

As employers make plans to modify pandemic-related work-from-home arrangements and require employees to come into the workplace, many have wrestled with “the vaccination status question.” Should employers ask employees whether they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or even require employees to provide proof of vaccination before returning to work (subject to certain accommodation obligations)?

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) COVID-19 Guidance has made clear that, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”), employers are generally permitted to inquire about vaccination status, because the question is not a disability-related inquiry or a medical examination.  In light of this guidance, many employers have opted to ask the vaccination status question, and are doing so in various voluntary or mandatory ways, e.g., through surveys, through required completion of forms or attestations, or even by requesting proof of vaccination (i.e., a copy or photograph of the employee’s CDC-issued vaccination card received at the time of vaccination).

But once the vaccination status question is asked and answered, what can and should an employer do with the vaccination status information? Can it be the basis for employment-related decisions? Are there any restrictions on

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law an amendment to the Illinois Employee Sick Leave Act (ESLA), permitting employees to take leave for a covered family member’s “personal care.”

Enacted in 2017, the ESLA requires Illinois employers to permit employees to use half of their annual accrued sick leave under an existing sick leave policy for absences related to the illness, injury, or medical appointment of certain family members. For example, an employee who accrues 40 hours of sick leave each year is entitled to use 20 hours of such time for family leave purposes. Notably, the ESLA does not require employers to provide paid sick leave—it only applies to those employers who already provide leave to their employees. So, once an employer offers sick leave, it must allow employees to use available leave for family-care purposes listed in the ESLA.  For more information on the ESLA, please refer to this earlier article.

Under the recent amendment to the ESLA, employees must now be permitted to take sick leave for the “personal care” of a “covered family member.”

• “Covered family member” includes an employee’s child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent.

Pursuant to the Chicago Vaccine Anti-Retaliation Ordinance that took effect on April 21, 2021, Chicago workers – including both employees and independent contractors – now have certain protections designed to safeguard access to a COVID-19 vaccination. Under the Ordinance, an employer, defined as any person or entity that engages the services of one or more individual for payment:

• May not take adverse action against any worker for taking time during scheduled work time to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination;
• May not require a worker to get vaccinated only during non-working (non-shift) hours; and
• Must permit workers to use accrued or available paid time off, including but not limited to paid sick leave, for the purpose of getting vaccinated (as discussed here, the Illinois Department of Labor has more broadly encouraged all Illinois employers to permit employees to use available paid time off for this purpose).

In addition, if an employer has made vaccination mandatory for workers, then the employer:

• Must compensate the worker for time, up to 4 hours per vaccine dose (one or two doses, as required based on the type of COVID-19 vaccine received), that the worker takes to get the vaccine, if the
  

Under amendments to the Illinois Business Corporation Act and the Illinois Equal Pay Act, certain corporations will be required, beginning in 2023 and continuing thereafter, to report data concerning the gender, race, and ethnicity makeup of their workforces, along with information about their compensation practices and efforts to comply with equal pay laws.  Much of this information will become public, and failure to report the necessary information can lead to significant penalties.

EEO Data Reporting

Illinois domestic corporations and foreign corporations authorized to do business in Illinois are already required by the Illinois Business Corporation Act to file certain annual reports with the Secretary of State.  Beginning with the corporation’s annual report filed on and after January 1, 2023, any such corporations which are also required to file an Employer Information Report EEO-1 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) must include with their annual report “information that is substantially similar to the employment data reported under Section D of the corporation’s EEO-1” report.

Employers should be aware that data on the gender, race and ethnicity of each reporting corporation’s employees will be published by the Secretary of State on its website within 90 days of receipt.

Equal Pay Registration