Illinois to Require Pay Transparency Starting in 2025

Author: Emily Scace, Brightmine Legal Editor

August 14, 2023

With the signature of Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday, August 11, Illinois has joined the list of states requiring pay transparency in job postings.

Effective January 1, 2025, Illinois employers with 15 or more employees will be required to include a pay scale and benefits description in job postings, including those posted or published by third parties.

The transparency law, H.B. 3129, will cover many remote roles, including some where the employee is physically located outside Illinois. Positions that will be physically performed at least partially in Illinois must comply, as well positions performed outside Illinois in which the employee reports to an Illinois-based supervisor, office or other worksite.

Although smaller employers with fewer than 15 employees are not required to publicly post pay ranges, all employers must share the pay scale and benefits for a position with an applicant upon request and before any offer or discussion of compensation if that information has not been provided in a public or internal job posting.

In addition to pay transparency, H.B. 3129 requires employers to announce, post or otherwise notify current employees of all opportunities for promotion within 14 calendar days of making an external job posting for the position. An earlier version of the bill had required this notification on the same calendar day that the external posting was published or earlier.

The law also contains antiretaliation protections. Employers may not refuse to interview, hire, promote or employ - or otherwise discriminate against - an applicant or employee for exercising their rights to pay transparency.

Violations will be punishable by fines of up to $500 for a first offense, $2,500 for a second offense and $10,000 for a third or subsequent offense. For a first or second offense, an employer will have a cure period to remedy the violation - 14 days and seven days, respectively.

Similar pay transparency laws have recently been enacted in California, Hawaii, New York and Washington.