New Laws Coming To Illinois In 2022: Minimum Wage Hike; Streamlined FOID Cards And Concealed Carry Licenses
CHICAGO (CBS) -- From a boost in the minimum wage to making Juneteenth a state holiday to requiring larger law enforcement agencies to equip officers with body cameras, scores of new laws will go into effect in Illinois in 2022.
Below are just a handful of the new laws that take effect on Jan. 1:
Minimum Wage Increase
The minimum wage in Illinois will rise to $12 an hour on Jan. 1, as part of a state law passed in 2019 that gradually increases the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.
The state's minimum wage law includes provisions allowing employers to pay a lower minimum wage to tipped workers and to minors who work less than 650 hours a year. The minimum wage for tipped workers will increase to $7.20 an hour in 2022, and the minimum wage for anyone under age 18 who works less than 650 hours a year will rise to $9.25 an hour.
The city of Chicago already increased its minimum wage to $15 an hour earlier this year. Cook County's minimum wage is set at $13 an hour, although many suburbs have opted out and instead have their own lower minimum wage, or abide by the state's minimum wage.
Police Body Cameras
As part of a sweeping criminal justice reform bill signed by Gov. JB Pritzker earlier this year, larger law enforcement agencies in Illinois will be required to equip all of their officers with body cameras in 2022.
Municipalities and counties with a population of 500,000 or more (the city of Chicago, as well as Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, and Will counties) will be required to provide officers with body cameras by Jan. 1.
The same law requires smaller municipalities and counties to equip officers with body cameras in later years, as part of a phased-in approach to police officers in Illinois wearing body cameras by 2025.
The Chicago Police Department first began equipping officers with body cameras in 2015, and all patrol officers were equipped with them by the end of 2017. All officers in other specialized units were equipped with body cameras by 2021.
The Lake County Sheriff's office first began equipping officers with body cameras in 2015, and has since expanded the program to every officer.
The Cook County Sheriff's Office has provided cameras for all its officers since 2017.
The Kane County Sheriff's Office and Will County Sheriff's Office began deploying body cameras last year. The DuPage County Board this year approved a $2.5 million contract to equip all sheriff's officers with body cameras by the end of the year.
Hairstyle Discrimination
Public and private schools will no longer be allowed to ban specific hairstyles as part of their dress codes, "including hairstyles historically associated with race, ethnicity, or hair texture."
Dreadlocks, cornrows and braids are traditionally Black hairstyles that have often been restricted in schools and workplaces.
The Jett Hawkins Act is named after a 4-year-old from Chicago who was told his braids violated his school's dress code.
The law was sponsored by Illinois State Sen. Mike Simmons, who wears his hair in freeform dreadlocks, and has said he faced hair discrimination when he was in school, and would face inappropriate comments from teachers about his hair.
FOID Card/Concealed Carry License Changes
The state will streamline the process for renewing Firearm Owners Identification cards and concealed carry licenses in the new year.
As Firearm Owners Identification cards are replaced in 2022, new cards will be printed without expiration dates. When a new FOID card is issued, if the cardholder has a concealed carry license, they will be issued a combined FOID card and CCL.
State police hope this new process will help with the months-long backlog of FOID card applications.
In addition, when FOID cards are suspended, if the cardholder has a concealed carry license, the CCL will be suspended until the FOID card is reinstated. When the FOID card is reinstated, the CCL also will be reinstated.
When a CCL is suspended or revoked, but a person is still eligible to keep their FOID card, they will be able to retain their combined FOID/CCL, but the state's Law Enforcement Automated Data System will show the CCL has been suspended or revoked.
When a FOID card expires while a CCL is still valid, the FOID card will be automatically renewed without having to pay a renewal fee, and the license holder will be sent a new combined FOID card and CCL without an expiration date printed on the card.
Police Interrogations Of Children
A new law signed by Gov. Pritzker in July makes Illinois the first state to bar police from using deceptive tactics when questioning young people.
Supporters of the law say such practices often lead to false confessions and wrongful convictions.
The law prohibits police from knowingly providing false information about evidence, or making unauthorized promises of leniency when questioning anyone under age 18 about a crime.
Any confessions obtained from minors through the use of such deceptive tactics would be deemed inadmissible in court, unless prosecutors can show "by a preponderance of the evidence that the confession was voluntarily given, based on the totality of the circumstances."
Optional Standardized Testing For College Admissions
The Higher Education Fair Admissions Act will prohibit all public universities, colleges, and community colleges in Illinois from requiring students to submit SAT, ACT, or other standardized test scores as part of the admissions process.
Students applying for college would still have the option of submitting those test scores if they want, but will not be required to do so for public colleges or universities. The ban will not apply to private colleges or universities.
No Permits Required For Lemonade Stands
Children under the age of 16 will be able to operate lemonade stands without having to get a permit, or face the prospect of public health inspections.
Inspired by a story you saw first on CBS 2, the legislation known as Hayli's Law was named after 13-year-old Hayli Martenez, who was forced to stop running her lemonade stand in Kankakee.
We first told you about Hayli Martenez in July 2019.
Her dream was shattered when her lemonade stand outside her Kankakee home was shut down by county health officials - who called it unsanitary.
"I said: 'Are you serious? Are you really serious that we have to stop making lemonade?'" mom Iva Martenez said at the time.
Our story sparked outrage around the world. Government overreach, many said. They asked, isn't the sidewalk lemonade stand a rite of passage for children everywhere?
"We never thought that a lemonade for 50 cents can go big," Iva Martenez said after Gov. JB Pritzker signed the legislation in July, "and then the support that came from people of all different nationalities - all over the world."
State Sen. Patrick Joyce (D-Park Forest) sponsored the law.
"If she's got the initiative to run a lemonade stand, she should be able to make a little money running a lemonade stand," Joyce said in July.
Juneteenth
Juneteenth, the day celebrating the end of slavery in the United States., becomes an official state holiday in 2022.
The law will make June 19 a paid holiday for state workers and public school employees when the date falls on a weekday. Because June 19 is on a Sunday next year, the first paid state holiday for Juneteenth will be in 2023.
In addition, flags across the state will be lowered to half-staff, and the state will raise the Juneteenth flag over the Illinois State Capitol building every June 19th.
Juneteenth marks the anniversary of June 19, 1865, the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War had ended and slavery had been abolished, freeing the last of the slaves still being held in the Confederacy, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
While many states commemorate the ending of slavery, only some observe Juneteenth as an official holiday. The number has grown following last summer's reckoning over racial injustice, most recently including Maine and Washington.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago City Council also have approved an ordinance making Juneteenth an official city holiday in Chicago starting in 2022.
Juneteenth became an official federal holiday this year.