Prior to adjourning on June 1, the Illinois General Assembly passed a number of bills that could either directly or indirectly impact Main Street businesses. Below is a list of some of them.

Many of them were modified or improved due to NFIB and member advocacy.

Workforce Development

–  SB 3070: Amends the School Code. Grants high school students an alternative path to graduation by permitting them to take career and technical educational courses instead of foreign language courses.

Job Postings

–  HB 4758: Amends the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act. Applies to employers with 15 or more employees. Prohibits job posting from stating that a driver’s license is required unless driving is an essential function of the posted job and a business necessity. If a driver’s license is required, the job posting shall include a short description of why the driver’s license is required.

Workplace/Workforce

–  HB 1353: Amends the Volunteer Emergency Worker Job Protection Act. No employer may terminate or penalize an employee who is late or absent from work due to required volunteer emergency worker training. (Current law forbids employers from terminating an employee if the employee is late or absent from work because he is responding to an emergency.)

–  HB 4844: Amends the Jury Act. Employers with more than 25 employees must pay their employees at their regular rate of pay while they are serving on jury duty.

–  HB 4725: Amends the Attorney General Act. Grants the Attorney General’s Worker Protection Unit additional powers to investigate employers and worksites.

–  HB 5228: Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Imposes assessments on workers’ compensation insurance carriers to fund the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s budget. Creates penalties for licensed employers who fail to carry adequate workers’ compensation insurance. Revises the medical review process.

–  HB 5284: Amends the Human Rights Act. Requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees experiencing menopause-related conditions. The employer may require medical documentation of the need and may, upon showing undue hardship, deny the accommodation.

–  SB 807: Amends the Unemployment Insurance Act. Pushes back the unemployment insurance “speed bumps” until 2029. Requires employers who lay off 50 or more full-time employees at a single site to submit the layoff information to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

–  SB 3465: Amends the Construction Site Temporary Restroom Facility Act. Requires employers in the construction industry to provide tampons and sanitation pads and access to a toilet facility to menstruating workers. Upon request, the employer must also provide lactation accommodations unless doing so is an undue hardship.

–  SB 3777: Amends the Illinois Human Rights Act. Codifies the federal disparate impact standard for human rights violations into Illinois statute.

Commercial

–  HB 45: Amends the Sale Price Ad Act. Requires grocery stores that own and operate their own apps that offer discounted prices or other promotions to make the discounted prices or promotions available to any customer who meets the terms and conditions for the digital promotion.

–  HB 228: Amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Mandates that all mandatory fees and surcharges be included in advertised, displayed, and offered prices. Excludes reasonable postage and shipping. Also excludes governmental taxes and fees. Other exceptions and regulations apply.

–  HB 4044: Creates the Consumer Product Return Act. Regulates commercial returns of unopened and unused products.

–  HB 4379: Amends the Equitable Restrooms Act. Requires “public buildings” built after January 1, 2029, to include an adult changing station. “Public building” includes a number of private facilities, including theaters, concert halls, and stores that are larger than 40,000 square feet; buildings used for public display, such as galleries; and places of recreation, such as amusement parks.

–  HB 4592: Creates the Retail Cash Payment Act. Requires retailers—gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants—to accept in-person cash payments of less than $500 at physical locations during the hours of 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Exceptions apply.

–  SB 3066: Creates the Service Appointment Fairness Act. Prohibits service professionals from charging customers a no-show fee unless the service professional provides specified notice.

–  SB 3645: Amends the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act. Delays the prohibition on credit card fees on taxes and tips by a year, pushing back the effective date until July 1, 2027.

Small Group Health Insurance Plans

–  SB 2762: Amends the Illinois Insurance Code and other acts. Imposes new requirements on small-group health insurance plans while exempting state employee health insurance plans due to the projected costs the new mandates would impose on the state.