Wage and hour violations in Illinois just got a lot more expensive. On Friday, July 9, 2021, Governor Pritzker signed an amendment to the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act that increases the penalty for underpaying wages from 2% of the amount of the underpayment per month to 5%. That may not sound like a
Among the bills awaiting signature by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is an amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003 that would ban employers from asking job applicants for information about their wage, salary or benefits history. Governor Pritzker is expected to sign the bill, HB834. With this new law, Illinois joins at
Back in 2008, Illinois enacted what at the time must have seemed like a relatively obscure law to address privacy concerns associated with biometric information – the Biometric Information Privacy Act or “BIPA”. At the time, biometric devices existed, but they weren’t terribly common. Today, many of us carry a sophisticated fingerprint reader or face
The idea seems so simple: Instead of carefully tracking how much time each employee takes off during the year, we all agree to treat one another as professional, responsible adults, and take off whatever time we need consistent with getting our work done. That’s the idea behind unlimited vacation or PTO policies, and it does
There’s nothing like a looming deadline to prompt action. Back in August, Governor Rauner signed into law an amendment to the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act that, for the first time, requires Illinois employers to reimburse employees for reasonable expenditures or losses required in the course of their employment duties and that primarily benefit
While not strictly speaking a wage and hour issue, here is a heads-up to any employers that use timekeeping systems featuring biometric security, like a thumbprint or fingerprint scanner:
You might want to read this recent Crain’s Chicago Business article about a class action lawsuit recently filed against the Mariano’s chain of grocery stores under
In recent years, I have noticed a movement away from the traditional categories of “vacation” and “sick” leave and holidays to hybrids like PTO, holiday hours, and personal days. While those new categories provide greater flexibility to employees and apparent ease as to record-keeping, they also complicate the question for employers about whether those accrued
A few weeks ago, a reader e-mailed me a question about her son:
I’m trying to find out if my son can demand payment by check or direct deposit. He is 16 years old and working at Burger King.
Right now they load his payment onto a VISA card. Needless to say he can use
As mentioned in a recent FR alert, “Time Off to Vote?,” written by my colleague Sally J. Scott, Illinois requires employers to allow employees who are eligible to vote up to two hours of paid time off while polls are open (from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.) on Election Day. For wage
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Labor held a ceremony at which Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis signed a memorandum of understanding with the Internal Revenue Service to “improve departmental efforts to end the business practice of misclassifying employees in order to avoid providing employment protections.” The DOL also signed or has agreed to