June 16, 2025
The Illinois General Assembly recently passed several bills that could impact the small business community
Prior to its adjournment, the Illinois General Assembly passed a number of bills that could impact the business community.
Below are a few of the notable ones:
HB 1189 (Belt) – Amends the Prevailing Wage Act. Imposes Illinois’ prevailing-wage mandates and processes on state and local projects funded or partially funded by the federal government when the federal prevailing wage requirement is equal to or less than the state’s prevailing wage requirement.
HB 1278 (Didech) – Amends the Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act. Forbids employers from discriminating against employees for use of employer-issued equipment to record domestic violence, sexual violence, gender violence, or any other crime of violence committed against the employee or a family or household member of the employee. Employers must grant employees access to any recordings or digital documents/communications on the device relating to any such violence.
HB 1616 (Syed) – Amends the Employee Blood and Organ Donation Leave Act. Expands the act so that part-time employees who donate organs qualify for the act’s leave provisions. The act applies to employers with 51 or more employees. Employees can only use the leave after obtaining approval from the employer.
HB 1697 (Manley) – Creates the Prescription Drug Affordability Act. Imposes a number of transparency provisions on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Bans patient “steering” and “spread pricing.” Creates a grant program for pharmacies that meet specified criteria.
HB 2488 (Johnson) – Amends the Prevailing Wage Act. Specifies that for training and apprenticeship programs, “prevailing wage” includes “full journeyman annualized fringe benefits” as opposed to “annualized fringe benefits.”
HB 2978 (Faver Dias) – Creates the Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act. Requires employers with 16 or more employees to grant unpaid leave to employees with children in a neonatal intensive care unit. The amount of unpaid leave the employee is eligible for is based on the number of employees employed by the employer.
HB 2987 (Stuart) – Creates the Warehouse Tornado Preparedness Act. Requires operators of warehouses (as defined by specified NAICS codes) to prepare tornado safety plans. These plans must be reviewed and updated at least once a year. Plans must be filed with the local fire department or fire protection district.
HB 3094 (Mah) – Amends the Transportation Benefits Program Act. Exempts union contractors from the requirements of the act. Extends the program to part-time employees.
HB 3200 (Hoffman) – Amends the Unemployment Insurance Act. Creates a three-year pilot program for individuals who voluntarily leave employment due to a mental-health disability. The disability must be certified by a licensed and practicing psychiatrist. Permits the Department of Employment Security to pursue liens to recover money fraudulently received by applicants. Makes other changes.
HB 3638 (Williams) – Amends the Workplace Transparency Act. Expands the act to include labor-law issues. Permits employees to recover consequential damages for violations.
SB 212 (Fine) – Amends the Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act. Rewords the section dealing with breaks for nursing mothers. Specifies that an employer cannot require an employee to use paid leave during a break to express breast milk.
SB 220 (Porfirio) – Amends the Family Military Leave Act. Requires employers to provide up to 8 hours of paid leave per calendar month and up to 40 hours per calendar year for employees to participate in a military funeral honors detail. The provision applies to employers with 51 or more employees.
SB 1344 (Halpin) – Amends the Prevailing Wage Act. Applies the prevailing-wage mandate to sewer inspections that use a closed-circuit television—inspections that require no construction, repair, or replacement. Adds additional penalty provisions to the Prevailing Wage Act.
SB 1441(Peters) – Amends the Secure Choice Savings Program Act. Limits the Secure Choice Savings Programs to IRA accounts. Specifies that employers have up to 120 days to enroll new employees who do not opt out of the program.
SB 1976 (Peters) – Creates the Workers’ Rights and Worker Safety Act and the Safe and Healthy Workplace Act. Requires state agencies to incorporate rescinded and rolled-back federal workplace regulations at the state level and grants so-called “interested parties” broad latitude to bring civil lawsuits against employers.
SB 2164 (Halpin) – Amends the Wage Payment and Collection Act. Removes the requirement for the Department of Labor to petition the circuit court for enforcement of administrative decisions under the Wage Payment and Collection Act.
SB 2487 (Johnson) – Amends the Human Rights Act. Imposes a civil penalty to “vindicate the public interest” on businesses that violate the provisions of the Human Rights Act.
NFIB is a member-driven organization advocating on behalf of small and independent businesses nationwide.
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