Illinois Employment Law Update – February 2019

Minimum Wage

On February 19, 2019, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation (S.B. 1) increasing the state’s minimum wage rate as follows:

• $9.25 per hour on January 1, 2020.
• $10 per hour on July 1, 2020.
• $11 per hour on January 1, 2021.
• $12 per hour on January 1, 2022.
• $13 per hour on January 1, 2023.
• $14 per hour on January 1, 2024.
• $15 per hour on January 1, 2025.

The youth minimum wage (workers under age 18) increases as follows:

• No later than December 31, 2019, no less than $.50 less than the state’s minimum wage.
• Beginning on January 1, 2020, every employer must pay each youth who worked more than 650 hours during any calendar year the state’s minimum wage.
• For youth workers who did not work more than 650 hours:
  • $8 per hour on January 1, 2020.
  • $8.50 per hour on January 1, 2021.
  • $9.25 per hour on January 1, 2022.
  • $10.50 per hour on January 1, 2023.
  • $12 per hour on January 1, 2024.
  • $13 per hour on and after January 1, 2025.

The law also:

• Permits employers with 50 or fewer employees to claim a tax credit for 25 percent of the cost of the increase in 2020; however, credit gradually phases out.
• Doubles the statutory penalty for minimum wage violations to 5 percent per month and increases the amount employees may recover to treble the amount of wages owed.
• Adds a $1,500 penalty for employers where an underpayment is willful, repeated, or reckless.
• Adds a penalty of $100 per impacted employee where an employer fails to maintain required records.

The law became effective February 19, 2019.

Read IL S.B. 1