The new pay transparency requirements under the Illinois Equal Pay Act apply to all employers with 15 or more employees. This figure includes all employees, full- or part-time, within or outside of Illinois.

Effective Date

The requirements of the Act apply to all job postings for a specific employment opportunity posted on or after January 1, 2025. The Illinois Department of Labor has not clarified whether a posting originally posted before January 1, 2025 will be covered if it remains posted on or after that date. In the absence of specific guidance to the contrary, employers should consider updating any earlier postings with the required pay scale and benefits information.

Remote Workers and Out of State Employers

Job postings are subject to the new pay transparency requirements if the job will be physically performed, at least in part, in Illinois, or if the employee will report to a supervisor, office, or other work site in Illinois.

Positions Outside of Illinois

Suppose an employer operates branches in multiple states but has no facilities or other business in Illinois. The employer’s sole contact with Illinois is a single regional manager, who oversees operations at multiple locations in other states but is based at her home in Chicago. Under the new Illinois law, any job posting for an employee reporting directly to the regional manager in Illinois would be subject to the pay transparency requirements Illinois law, even if those employees will never set foot in Illinois. Further, the law does not clarify whether the requirement applies only to employees who will report directly to the Illinois-based manager, or also to indirect reports who the manager may also “supervise.”

Fellow legal geeks may wonder whether Illinois can really impose such requirements on an employer’s operations outside of the state. While I do love a good dormant commerce clause discussion, we will save that for a separate post should someone decide to raise the issue in court.

Remote Workers In Illinois

The Illinois Department of Labor also states in its guidance that the pay transparency rules apply to a job posting for remote work that could be performed either in Illinois or elsewhere, if the employer “had a reason to know or reasonably foresee at the time it made the specific job posting that the work would be done, at least in part, in Illinois ….” This may mean, for example, that an employer in Florida that has no presence in Illinois and posts a one-off opportunity for a remote job would not have to disclose pay scale and benefits unless there was some specific reason to think that the job would be filled by someone working in Illinois. However, an employer that specifically recruits and advertises in Illinois, or that already has a large percentage of its remote work force in Illinois, might be able to “reasonably foresee” that someone from Illinois would be hired for the position. We will need further guidance from the Illinois Department of Labor and the courts to see exactly where this line is drawn.