Illinois: New State EEO-1 Filing and Equal Pay Registration Requirements

SB 1480 requires Illinois employers who are required to complete the federal EEO-1 report, to provide similar information to the state who will publicly publish the information. Specifically, employers with 100 or more employees (or 50 or more employees with a government contract of $50,000 or more) are required to file the federal EEO-1 report. Those same employers will be required to report similar race, ethnicity, and gender data in a format that will be approved by the Secretary of State. Like California, Illinois employers will also be required to submit corresponding pay data. The new requirements will go into effect on or after January 1, 2023.

Beginning March 24, 2024, employers with 100 employees or more will also be required to obtain an equal pay registration certificate from the Illinois Department of Labor (ILDOL). Employers must submit a report of all employees separated by EEO-1 data with the amount of wages paid to each employee during the past calendar year, rounded to the nearest hundred dollar. Employers who start a business after that time must obtain their equal pay certificate within three years of starting a business in Illinois. Reporting will be required every two years. There is also a $150 filing fee.

As part of the certificate application, employers must also certify to the state that: they comply with federal and state equal employment laws; the average compensation for female and minority employees is not consistently below the average compensation for male and non-minority employees (accounting for length of service, requirements of specific jobs, experience, skill, effort, responsibility, working conditions of the job, or other mitigating factors); job classifications, retention, and promotion are managed without regard to sex; the employer corrects wage and benefit disparities when identified; how frequently wages and benefits are evaluated to ensure compliance with equal pay laws; and what approach the employer uses when setting employee compensation (e.g., a market pricing approach, state prevailing wage, union contract requirements, performance pay system, internal analysis, or an alternative approach).

An equal pay registration certificate may be suspended or revoked if the employer fails to make a good-faith effort to comply with, or has multiple violations of, equal pay laws or the certification requirements. The ILDOL may audit employer compliance with these rules. Failure to comply with the rules may result in penalties equal to 1% of the employer’s gross profits. The bill also prohibits retaliation against whistleblowers.

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